We promote, protect and support the interests of our members in all aspects of their working lives. We are working for an equitable, accessible public health care system that meets the needs of all New Zealanders.
Find out who your new ASMS branch officers are. We have new ASMS Branch Presidents and Vice-Presidents in many DHBs following elections earlier this year. Their three-year terms began on 1 July. Branch officers are key representatives in your workplace. They promote and organise local ASMS activities and can help raise general or local issues and concerns. See the list below if you want to know who to contact.
The June Specialist is out now. Read all about the health reforms and what members’ views are. Find out what the Budget delivered for health, how members reacted to the Government’s ‘pay freeze’ and ride the e-bike wave. We also welcomed our new National Executive and you can see us out supporting our nursing colleagues in their fight for fair pay.
A new report by the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Toi Mata Hauora shows New Zealand cannot afford to waste another three years watching the crisis in mental health spiral further out of control. The report – What Price Mental Health? The Crisis and the Cure – uses official data and evidence to lay out the extent of underfunding of mental health and addiction services. It also details the huge increase in demand for specialist services and the lack …
The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Toi Mata Hauora says an urgent ‘fix-it’ notice needs to be issued to address an understaffing crisis across the health system. According to Radio New Zealand, Worksafe has issued Wellington Free Ambulance with a ‘fix-it’ notice over worker fatigue. Ambulance staff themselves blame the situation on a massive shortfall in staffing. ASMS Executive Director Sarah Dalton says staffing shortfalls are the new normal in health, leading to high levels of burnout, people leaving and …
The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Toi Mata Hauora is fully supporting striking nurses in their fight for fair pay and safe staffing. 30,000 members of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation are walking off the job for eight hours today after turning down the latest pay offer from the DHBs. ASMS Executive Director Sarah Dalton says no one knows better than doctors how valuable nurses are and the dedicated care they give to patients around the country. “There is a …
We know that the nurses’ strike is going to pose real challenges to staff and patients AND we fully support their cause for decent pay and conditions. We’ve put together some initial guidance for you on issues which arose during the last nurses’ strike in 2018 that may come up this time.
Registrations are now open for the Creating Solutions – Towards better health equity for all conference. The virtual conference is on 2-3 July and is being co-hosted by ASMS and the Canterbury Charity Hospital Trust. We have put together an exciting programme of national and international speakers and health sector leaders. The conference will be opened by the Health Minister Andrew Little with a keynote address by the established British health equity researcher Sir Michael Marmot. All those attending will be …
Every year the Council of Trade Unions carries out a detailed analysis of the Budget across all sectors. ASMS’ Research and Policy Team contributes to the analysis on health spending. The report crunches the numbers and looks at what has been promised and whether there is sufficient funding to cover rising costs, including wages, population growth and demographic change. The health section is on p18 of the report which you can read here
The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Toi Mata Hauora says the Government is showing real commitment in trying to correct decades of underfunding in health, but it shouldn’t forget the commitment of the people who keep the system going. This year’s Budget has delivered a $4.7 billion dollar increase in health spending, boosted by funding for Covid and health system restructuring. “We are pleased to hear this will be the first of three Budgets along these lines, because despite some …
We want to thank our members at Waikato DHB for going above and beyond this week in the wake of the cyber attack which has caused major disruption to clinical services and patient care. Unfortunately it has also affected the DHB’s payroll system. We wanted to give our Waikato members a quick update.