Simeon Brown: Health Minister on the senior doctor strike, pay for doctors

The Health Minister is standing by the current pay offer to senior doctors. 

Thousands of planned procedures have been delayed following yesterday's strike action, while Health New Zealand is applying to the Employment Relations Authority for urgent facilitation. 

Union members have told Newstalk ZB their pay rates aren't keeping up with the private sector or with Australia. 

But Simeon Brown told Mike Hosking the pay offer is "credible" given Health New Zealand only has so much money to go around. 

He says the health budget has to cover hospital services, GPs, aged care, and a range of other things, and there's pressure across the board. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So despite the doctors being on strike yesterday, problems not
gone away. So it's back to the negotiating table. The
employment relations authorities now getting involved. The Health Minister Sume
and Brown with us this Friday morning.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Good morning, good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Shouldn't we have a simple rule in this country around
negotiations of larby unionized workforces have a couple of cracks
and once we do that, let's go to compulsory arbitration.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
I've been very clear that what the union should be
doing here is negotiating, and there's a range of different
ways that that can be done, such as what you're
suggesting here. But striking is not the answer. Striking does
not help patients. And as I've been saying, four three
hundred patients had their either surgeries canceled or their specialist
appointments canceled yesterday, which or delayed, sorry, which means they're

(00:40):
going to have to wait even longer now for the
treatment they've been waiting too long for already.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
I get that your line yesterday was the union should
have put the offer to the doctors. Do you reckon?
If they had put the officers to the doctors, the
doctors would have come even within a million miles of
accepting it.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Well, the key point here is that the majority of
doctors either did not vote or voted no to striking,
only a minority of doctors actually voted or the Wildy
members actually voted to go on strike yesterday. So yes,
I do think they should have put the offer to
the table. It was a credible offer dealt with a
number of the key issues, such as bonding payments for
doctors who go to hard to staff regions like Gisbon

(01:16):
and Nelson had included removing the bottom three runs of
the bands so that junior doctors become senior doctors don't
get the effective pay cut that's critical to attracting new
doctors in and also provided increases to the bands over
a two year period. So it was a credible offer
should have been put to the members. I know how
important these doctors care for their patients, and the right

(01:39):
thing would have been to have had that discussion rather
than cancel care for the patients they care for.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Is the offer of the offer or if you had
more money, you'd give them the money.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Well, ultimately, Health New Zealand is negotiating the union. They're
going through a process.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Yeah, but they've got no more money and we all
know we don't have any money. We're a broke country.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
But if we were round here, well did. Health new
Zealand has to deliver with its budget. This government has
put a record increase in funding into Health New Zealand
sixteen six billion dollars over three budgets. But that funding
has to cover a range of things. That has to
cover our hospital services, it has to also cover our GPS,
has to fund a huge age here, whole range of

(02:17):
different things and there's pressures across the board. So Health
New Zealand has to balance up all of the different
things that have to fund. And I've been very clear
you know we need to be actually investing more into
primary care so we actually keep you them with the
hospitals in the first place. And so there's a range
of balancing balances they need to make. They've put a
credible offer forward and they have to deliver within the

(02:37):
budget that they've been provided. It's a credible offer and
it should have been put to them.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
Members, good stuff, appreciate it, have a good weekend. Summing
in Brown health ministry is hard. Being the Health Minister
is in it today.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
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