Dr Hambleton, 4BC Brisbane, Queensland Hospital contracts

WALTER WILLIAMS: In the meantime, ladies and gentlemen, as hundreds of doctors have assembled in Brisbane tonight to vote on individual work contracts at the heart of a bitter dispute with the Government, let's get the latest from the AMA President himself. Dr Steve Hambleton, welcome back tonight.

STEVE HAMBLETON: Yes. Yes. Thank you very much for the opportunity.

WALTER WILLIAMS: Thank you for joining us again. My pleasure. Now, at this stage the union says the contracts are an offensive attack on working conditions and they believe the doctors will reject them despite last minute concessions by the Government. Well, what is the last minute thing that we're hearing tonight from this meeting?

STEVE HAMBLETON: Well, that's certainly the sentiment of senior doctors who are together here this evening at the cultural centre. There's over 1000 doctors in the room. There are obviously registrars and young doctors who have come along to support their senior colleagues. There's senior medical officers and visiting medical officers both with senior doctors here in the room, and, really, they - this whole process has eroded an enormous amount of trust among the senior doctors who really felt they were highly engaged in the Queensland health system and they have really been disengaged by this process, which is very disappointing.

The Director-General was here earlier this evening to actually reiterate that the Government wishes to fix this problem to actually deal with the issues that are of most concern to doctors. And they are that there's ability to unilaterally change these contracts, and actually has offered even tomorrow morning to go back to the drawing board and try to deal with these issues to put this matter to rest. But, certainly, there's a resounding vote here this evening that they don't have confidence in the process to date. They do want to hold the rollout of the contracts to allow those negotiations to occur to solve this dispute.

WALTER WILLIAMS: Okay. So it looks like there is some flexibility from the Health Minister, Lawrence Springborg, on these individual work contracts?

STEVE HAMBLETON: Well, the Minister actually came along to the negotiations on Monday this week, and really has made a significant impact on those negotiations by actually freeing up the ability of the negotiators to make some offers that really did go to the heart of the issue. It was really welcome to see the Minister there to listen to the concerns. There were senior medical offers trying to honestly put forward their concerns about the risks of having a situation where managers could overrule doctors, and that their real concerns were about patient safety in the long term. I didn't hear any issues about money. It was about patient safety and about re-engaging people. And, you know, we know that when we look at other jurisdictions, these very restrictive contracts are not the ones that get the best out of people. It's partnerships with senior practitioners that will actually get the benefits and will help us to work with the Government to actually save money and deliver better outcomes to the people of Queensland.

WALTER WILLIAMS: You're saying that the majority of the doctors are saying patient safety, not money, is the major concern - obviously someone has just got a hand of applause there. But the bottom line is, of course, some of these individual work contracts will affect the bottom line; won't they?

STEVE HAMBLETON: They certainly could. There's certainly a guarantee by government that when you move on to a contract there's no less of current salary, so that has taken one of the concerns away. But it's really the ability to change terms and conditions without reference to the party that got this thing going in the first place. There was a change in the ability for the Director-General to actually change terms and conditions in the contract without reference to the doctors that was put in the Health and Hospital Board Act, and it actually reversed the onus. In the past, a change could occur only if it was beneficial whether it was beneficial or not. In the current environment, that really set off a nerve amongst the practitioners wondering why that would be there.

Now, that's one of the things that the Minister has offered on Monday to actually put a legislation change in to make sure that the contract prevails, not the health employment directive. And that goes some way to assuaging the doctor's concerns. But tonight they have said that they don't feel that it's sufficient. But, you know, we actually do share the views of the Director-General and the Minister that we do want to see this matter resolved, and we do want to continue to talk with the Government to actually get a good outcome.

WALTER WILLIAMS: So tonight, with over 1000 senior medical officers at this meeting in Brisbane, there has been a vote of no-confidence in the individual work contracts?

STEVE HAMBLETON:  Absolutely.

WALTER WILLIAMS: Mhmm. And you, yourself, as the AMA President, Steve Hambleton, you have actually urged officers to stand up for their rights; haven't you?

STEVE HAMBLETON: We have. It's really important that people stand together when these things occur. You know, the federal AMA, I guess, doesn't usually get involved in State issues very often, though I guess I was State President some time ago, so I felt that I had some skin in the game, so to speak, and I'm very happy to support my State colleagues. Standing together is really the best way of getting the message very strongly across that if people are unhappy that working together is the best way of getting a good outcome.

WALTER WILLIAMS:  Because you're worried that these harsh contracts, as they have been seen, won't deliver good outcomes?

STEVE HAMBLETON:  Well, that's exactly right, and the harsh contracts have really never been shown to actually get the best out of employees. Whatever sector you're in, whether it's health, whether it's actually business, whether it's anywhere, partnership with your employees, trusting your employees, engaging them is what makes all the difference. We heard from a doctor tonight who said that, you know, he comes in at 2 o'clock in the morning if needed just to support his junior staff, and, a lot of the time, he's not even charging for that sort of stuff, which is really because they feel engaged, because they feel connected to the system, and they actually want to make sure it works.

WALTER WILLIAMS: So do the doctors, the thousand or so that have met tonight, the senior medical officers, do they feel let down and betrayed by the Campbell Newman Government?

STEVE HAMBLETON: Well, that's the sentiment they have expressed. This process has been going along for six months or so. There has been some difficulties with negotiations that occurred over the Christmas period; people were are away, and I think there were different people in the negotiating room. But it has left doctors with a sense of foreboding, really. And, as I say, it's only this week that we have actually seen some significant re-engagement, and it has been very welcome to see that. The Minister himself said, you know, trust is hard won but easily lost, and that's what I observe when I look around the room.

You know, this should never have happened. It should never have got to this point. The Queensland system was functioning pretty well. We actually had some of the best outcomes in our emergency departments, and the doctors here are to be congratulated for their engagement, and we don't want to disengage them. Now, there's some really innovative things that they're doing in emergency at Royal Brisbane Hospital that can be distributed not only through Queensland but also throughout the rest of the country. Because when you engage with the staff, you say we have got a problem, how are we going to fix it, the collective wisdom of the workforce is what we have got to tap into.

WALTER WILLIAMS: All right. And, finally, where to from here after this meeting tonight?

STEVE HAMBLETON: Well, the Director-General braved the crowd tonight, I think I have got to hand him my vote of thanks for being brave enough to come into a room with 1000 doctors who have actually expressed the fact that they are not very happy and say, well, please read the addendum to the contract which attempts to fix some of these problems, and if the words aren't quite right, let's continue those negotiations even tomorrow morning. So that's what, I guess, the next step is to make sure that if we can get a resolution, we should try and do exactly that.

WALTER WILLIAMS: All right. Thank you very much for your time tonight. Much appreciated. Live from the meeting tonight of the Australian Salaried Medical Officers. That is the AMA President, Dr Steve Hambleton. And if you heard tonight, there has been a vote of no-confidence in the individual work contracts by over a thousand doctors in attendance.

20 March 2014

CONTACT:        John Flannery                     02 6270 5477 / 0419 494 761

                            Kirsty Waterford                02 6270 5464 /0427209753