Doctors' dispute enters second week
By Lara Pullin
CANBERRA — A dispute involving the ACT's visiting medical officers (VMOs) has entered its second week. The dispute has forced the closure of the two public surgical wards at Calvary Hospital.
VMOs have individually withdrawn their services in protest at the negotiation arrangements for their contracts. They were prepared to take collective action until they were threatened with legal action under the Trade Practices Act.
VMOs have been defined as "individual contractors" to the hospital, not "hospital employees". The law prohibits those who are "in competition" with each other collectively agreeing to withhold their services.
VMOs' hospital contracts were due for renewal. The ACT Liberal government has been attempting to put the specialists on individual negotiated contracts for some time.
A similar dispute took place during the previous round of contract negotiations three years ago under the Labor ACT government. VMOs want to maintain "fee for service" arrangements at Canberra's two public hospitals.
The Canberra Hospital, on the south side, has reached agreement with 68 of its 109 VMOs. At the Calvary Hospital, only 24 of the 81 specialists have signed contacts.
The Labor opposition has alleged that the public hospitals are using the dispute as an excuse to close beds and save money.
The Australian Society of Orthopaedic Surgeons is calling for a return to collective bargaining within the public health system. It has denounced the government's use of "competition theory" as an inappropriate way to negotiate.
ACT health minister Michael Moore, an independent MP who has joined the Liberal cabinet, says that "Collective bargaining for doctors is not in the public interest". The government's line is that doctors are a privileged group.
Previously, the AMA has negotiated on the doctors' behalf. However, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has ruled that they must reach their own agreements with hospitals. An ACCC spokesperson has stated that the commission is "monitoring" the dispute.
None of that matters to the man who was sent home after a long wait in the casualty department following severe chest pains. He died a few hours later. "If we can't rely on the public health system, what can we rely on?", asked the man's distraught daughter.
Moore and the government are attempting to obscure the real cause of the dispute — the lack of public money going to public services.