ASMS

A drop in elective procedures is a symptom of a public health system overwhelmed by acute patients surging into hospitals requiring immediate and often life-saving care, says Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) Executive Director Ian Powell. A story (paywalled) in the Herald on Sunday today shows that for the first time in a decade the annual number of elective (pre-planned non-acute procedures) has dropped. The figure is almost 6000 surgeries lower than the previous year. Mr Powell says the …

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The World Medical Association has condemned as “abhorrent” the killing of a Japanese doctor in Afghanistan. Dr. Tetsu Nakamura, who had devoted his career to improving the lives of Afghans, was shot by gunmen in an attack in the city of Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan. He died of his injuries. His three security guards, his driver and a colleague were also killed in the attack. The full press release is available here.

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The World Medical Association has expressed its deep concern over a law being proposed by the Malaysian Government to imprison or fine physicians if they refuse to provide prescriptions being requested by patients. Read more

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He’s just graduated with a Doctorate in Medicine aged 90, and there’s no stopping Dr Ron Trubuhovich. The nonagenarian is already planning his next project, after he received his doctorate at the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences graduation on Friday. His thesis had to stick to a 100,000 word limit, meaning some early chapters on critical care medicine before 1870 had to be chopped. So his next move is to get them published elsewhere. His findings …

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Private firms have been handed almost £15bn in NHS contracts over the past five years, figures show. The value of contracts given to non-NHS providers, mainly profit-driven firms but also including some social enterprises, has soared by 89% since 2015, from £1.9bn to £3.6bn a year. The figures cast doubt on the claim to MPs by the health secretary, Matt Hancock, in January that “there is no privatisation of the NHS on my watch” and …

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New research reveals medical specialists in New Zealand’s public hospitals are, on average, earning as much as 60 percent less than their Australian counterparts. The research, conducted by BERL for the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, compared the base 40-hour a week salaries of senior hospital doctors on both sides of the Tasman. “There is no surprise that salaries for medical specialists are higher in Australia than here”, says BERL Research Director Dr Ganesh Nana. “However, the size of the …

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The president of the senior doctors union has opened its annual conference by hitting out at the health minister for failing to help a decaying health system. Members of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) gathered in Wellington today, with the conference largely focusing on Crown under-investment in health and workforce burnout. ASMS national president Murray Barclay said when the new government took over, the industry was hopeful it would get the funding it needed, but this had not …

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The senior doctors’ union will ask District Health Boards to introduce gender pay audits after independently-conducted research found female specialists are paid 12.5% less per hour than their male colleagues. Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) Deputy Executive Director Angela Belich said the findings provide an evidence base for the many anecdotal reports from women members who believed they were paid less but had no way of proving it. “ASMS will be asking each DHB to conduct a gender pay …

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Hospital specialists around the country warn that public hospitals have reached a tipping point in a new report entitled: Hospitals on the Edge. Produced by the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, the report is released today ahead of the health union’s annual conference. The impetus for the report is the rising concern of members about the increasingly unsafe state of our public hospitals and clinical services. The report contains statistical analysis as well as comments from working specialists, who have …

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Senior doctors are warning our public hospitals are in crisis – without enough staff to provide good, safe and reliable healthcare to New Zealanders. Medical specialists are reporting crying on the way to work, due to their workload, rapid growth in patient numbers, and not enough staff to go around. The president of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, Murray Barclay, speaks to RNZ Morning Report. Listen here

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