Five days before the junior doctors' strike, district health boards are not hopeful it will be averted.
A spokesman for the affected DHBs said more industrial talks scheduled for today were ''unlikely'' to avert the three-day strike starting on Tuesday.
''The issues that were live before Christmas are still live.
''It seems unlikely that we'll avert it.
But the spokesman also claimed the appetite of some junior doctors for strike action had ''waned''. This is despite the fact DHBs expect more doctors to walk off the job than in the previous strike. An influx of hundreds of new doctors who gained employment late last year after graduating has boosted the union's membership.
The spokesman said the New Zealand Resident Doctors' Association failed to secure support from their members in two DHBs this time - West Coast and Taranaki. Last time, doctors in all 20 DHBs voted to strike.
The spokesman said he expected more doctors in the 18 affected DHBs to ignore the strike notice.
''The appetite for strikes among resident medical officers has waned.
''The people who are saying they are not going on strike tend to be the more senior resident medical officers.
''The more senior they are, the more independent they are inside of the hospital system.''
Last October, about 48% of all junior doctors (also known as resident medical officers) went on strike for 48 hours.
NZRDA national secretary Deborah Powell said the continuation of the talks was positive.
''It would only be conjecture on my part to say what might be the outcome ... but at least we are still talking, which is the only way we will get settlement,'' Dr Powell said.
Dr Powell disputed the claim that interest in the industrial action was waning among her members.
The long-running dispute centres on safe working hours and rosters.
A statement from Southern DHB said it was working through contingency planning for the industrial action.
''Patients scheduled for either elective surgery or an outpatient clinic will be contacted directly, either by phone or mail, if their appointment needs to be postponed,'' interim chief executive Chris Fleming said.
In the October strike, 52 SDHB patients had a procedure postponed and 725 outpatients had a hospital appointment postponed.
Another 52 patients were not booked for an appointment or procedure once the strike notice was received, the southern board told the Otago Daily Times at the time.
