Employment advice and support for salaried medical specialists and one stop shop for those seeking senior doctor jobs in New Zealand hospitals and health sector.
Latest News & Reports
27 January 2012
Vote for the bargaining fee to ensure that all those who receive the benefits of the MECA, share the cost of negotiating it.
A ballot is currently being conducted in each DHB to determine whether the DHB will have a bargaining fee for non-ASMS members or not. The ballot closes next Friday, 3 February and all employees eligible for coverage of the new ASMS DHB MECA should have received a ballot form and explanatory notes.
If you have not received your ballot please contact the relevant ASMS scrutineer from the list below.
For a full explanation of the bargaining fee it is well worth referring to the In Depth article on the homepage of the ASMS website but briefly, a bargaining fee is a legislative right to have non-union members (who benefit directly as a result of union negotiations), pay a fee as a contribution to those negotiations.
1 February 2012
Inequality, unions, and wage-led growth
Income inequality has risen when union membership has been falling, and inequality has fallen when union membership has been strong.
Inequality was very high in the 1920s in the lead up to the Great Depression when around 15 percent of all income went to the richest 1% of the population. It peaked at 15.6 percent in 1928, the year before the Wall Street Crash and then fell rapidly from 1936 after the first Labour Government instituted compulsory unionism, allowed national unions, restored compulsory arbitration, and greatly expanded the welfare state and other advances which gave working people increased bargaining power. Inequality fell until the early 1980s, reaching a low in 1986 ......
1 February 2012
31 January 2012
“The private health insurers are superficially using Treasury scenarios to paint a picture of a health funding crisis in order to justify government subsidisation of health insurance. This is because the number of New Zealanders taking out private health insurance is declining, presumably due to the poor state of the economy.”
30 January 2012
Atul Gawande - I’ve been a surgeon for eight years. For the past couple of them, my performance in the operating room has reached a plateau. I’d like to think it’s a good thing—I’ve arrived at my professional peak. But mainly it seems as if I’ve just stopped getting better.
Surgical mastery is about familiarity and judgment. You learn the problems that can occur during a particular procedure or with a particular condition, and you learn how to either prevent or respond to those problems.
No matter how well trained people are, few can sustain their best performance on their own. That’s where coaching comes in.
28 January 2012
Threat of Lords revolt compels health secretary to change NHS bill amid claims of 'sheer panic' in government over opposition.
Growing opposition to the bill proposed by health secretary Andrew Lansley will compel him to spell out that the NHS will remain a free public service.
26 January 2012
Heather Roy is to Chair Medicines New Zealand, the industry association for innovative pharmaceutical companies in New Zealand.
Mrs Roy will take up the role of Chair of the industry body on 1 February 2012.
24 January 2012
Southern Cross Health Society has appointed Justin Vaughan to the role of Head of Clinical Operations. The not-for-profit Society is New Zealand’s largest health insurer with 830,000 members. Previously CEO of New Zealand Cricket, Dr Vaughan is a qualified medical practitioner, graduating through Auckland Medical School in 1991. Prior to joining NZ Cricket Justin held a number of key leadership roles in the healthcare sector....
20 January 2012
The bitter industrial dispute at the Port of Auckland has raised a number of serious issues which go beyond the port itself including casualisation, contracting out, privatisation, stability of hours of work, and adherence to good faith bargaining over a collective agreement. The Council of Trade Unions has forwarded to its affiliates a brief outline of the dispute which follows ...
19 January 2012
The new health targets announced today will assist in controlling chronic and preventable diseases, but the Government needs to broaden its focus. NZMA Chair Dr Paul Ockelford said the Government’s health targets are commendable but the emphasis on targets and throughput measures is flawed. “The health targets do not give a full picture of how our health system is performing because of the difficulty of linking these targets to information about patient and public health outcomes. We need to shift the focus from operational measures to an ‘end-game’ strategy, or in other words, defining what succeeding in health is really about.”
Perspective
20 December 2011
Ian Powell, Executive Director
20 December 2011
Dr Jeff Brown, President
20 December 2011
Angela Belich, Assistant ED
20 December 2011
Dr Garry Clearwater, MPS
In Depth
THE BARGAINING FEE BALLOT (Full article)
What is the bargaining fee?
The Employment Relations Act makes it possible for a union and an employer to agree that a collective agreement includes a clause which requires non-union members who chose to be covered by the collective agreement (the MECA) to pay a bargaining fee to the union to compensate union members for the costs that they have borne throughout the negotiation.
At the ASMS conference in 2005 it was resolved that ASMS should include a claim for a bargaining fee in our MECA claims and we have done so for both the MECA that expired in 2010 and for the proposed new MECA.
In the negotiations for the recently ratified MECA the DHBs agreed with our claim for a bargaining fee. Clauses 31.2 to 31.6 of the recently ratified MECA set out the conditions for the bargaining fee.
If SMOs at your DHB vote in favour of having a bargaining fee then non-ASMS members at your DHB will have to pay a fee equivalent to the ASMS membership fee in order to be covered by the MECA. They will also have the option of opting out of the MECA coverage if they wish.
The private finance initiative: the gift that goes on taking
A British Medical Journal editorial (December 2010) on the experience with the Private Finance Initiative in the UK's NHS. A timely reminder of the pitfalls of this approach in light of the pre-Christamd announcemt by Health Minister Tony Ryall of plans for just such a Public-Private partnership for Christchurch DHB.
The Business Case (download PDF)
Jointly developed by the DHBs and ASMS, this document provides a blueprint for the future direction of a clinically and financially sustainable health system. The Business Case outlines the problem, canvasses two future options, describes the path to a sustainable future, the shape and timing of the investment needed and provides a menu of actions from which DHBs and their senior medical and dental officers can commit to make the required savings alongside a Government commitment to invest in the senior medical and dental workforce as a priority.
Read more . . .Understanding the crisis that can't be avoided: The Business Case as a blueprint for the future
Prioritisation of Medical Disciplines for funding by Health Workforce New Zealand
September 2011
This is the article referred to in Asssitant Executive Director Angeal Belich's December Specialist article about HWNZ's prioritsation of funding for RMO training.
Formative Evaluation of the Physician Assistant Trial
August 2011
This is the full report prepared for Health Workforce New Zealand assessing the establishment of the Physician Assistant Trial at Counties Manukau DHB.
Report of the Wakatipu Health Services Expert Panel
August 2011
The National Health Board established an Expert Panel to provide advice on the future of health services in the Wakatipu Basin.
Core Documents
ASMS Annual Report 2011
The Annual Report covers the full range of ASMS' activities over the past year.
Time for Quality
August 2008
The Time for Quality agreement was developed between the ASMS and the 21 DHBs with the support of the Minister of Health.
In Good Hands
Report from Ministerial Task Group on Clinical Leadership, 2009
The In Good Hands report recommends introducing comprehensive clinical leadership in DHBs (Minister of Health's Media release).
Joint Agreement between ASMS and GPNZ (formerly IPAC)
ASMS and GPNZ's statement of agreed necessities for the Health System.
Clinical Governance Development Index in DHBs
Results of the member survey as per Robin Gauld's presentation to ASMS' Conference 2010
