This was the message of an Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) representative in Dunedin yesterday, as the union for senior doctors and dentists held its longest nationwide strike.
The union is in a standoff with Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand (HNZ) as it urges for better pay to boost staff levels.
Southern ASMS co-branch president Dr Chris Wisely said they had warned the government that specialists would not want to work in New Zealand as pay lagged behind inflation and overseas rates — a prediction that had come true.
"It’s gambling with people’s lives," the psychiatrist said.
"If you need your hip replacement, you want to get it done early so you can carry on working, looking after your family and being an active member of society.
"You don’t want to wait until you’re completely crippled and on pain relief, or depressed coming to see me."
Psychiatry was among the areas struggling.
He had been holding an Oamaru clinic once a week for 30 years, the only general adult psychiatrist for an area with about 25,000 people.
His Dunedin colleague was going to help in Invercargill — an area with just two psychiatrists — leaving him without a partner.
Staffing levels were about the same as 30 years ago, yet the population had roughly doubled and the number of inpatient beds had "halved, at least".
An emphasis on community psychiatric care had not stopped people needing impatient care, he said.
"There’s a lot of very disenfranchised, upset people out there," Dr Wisely said.
ASMS wanted to come to a sensible accommodation, but HNZ seemed unresponsive.
In 30 years he had never seen such a situation.
Issues had always been sorted out before striking, but doctors now felt completely disrespected, he said.
While pleased the government had announced an increase in medical students, Dr Wisely questioned who would be there to train them.
It was a poor investment to put a lot of money and 14 or 15 years into training a specialist, only for them to go overseas, he said.
"You need to have a whole infrastructure in place, senior doctors to train [them] and go right through the ranks in a succession plan, and it’s simply not in place."
Staffing struggles include a lack of urologists and radiation oncologists, as reported by the Otago Daily Times.
The College of Radiologists earlier this month told the hospital from October it would no longer be allowed to train radiation oncologists due to the lack of senior staff — the unit has just three although it is supposed to have eight.
Former ASMS senior industrial officer Lloyd Woods said he retired earlier this year, but had pitched in to support the unprecedented strike.
HNZ was "digging their toes in", but the doctors were determined to make them face the crisis.
Efforts were increasing — while the first two strikes were two hours long, yesterday’s was four hours long.
A 12-hour strike was planned for October 2, and a 24-hour strike on October 24.
HNZ interim national chief medical officer Dr Nick Baker said emergency departments remained open during the strike and care was maintained for patients.
About 250 planned procedures and outpatient appointments were deferred nationally, although figures for the South were not specified.
"Te Whatu Ora remains committed to doing all we can to resolve the dispute with the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists.
"We made an application to the Employment Relations Authority [on Wednesday] for facilitated bargaining, to help the parties reach a settlement."
