Catching up with ASMOFQ
Earlier this year, ASMOFQ met with Hon Yvette D’Ath, Minister for Health and Ambulance Services, and her staff earlier in the year. A number of issues were raised at that meeting and ASMOFQ continue to follow up on these ongoing issues.
Overloaded emergency departments
One of the issues raised with Minister D’Ath was the increase in patients presenting at Emergency Departments (ED) across Queensland and lack of adequate resources including Medical Officers and beds resulting in long wait times for patients and excessive hours being worked by ED doctors of all levels.
AMA Queensland and ASMOFQ mounted a campaign.
Overloaded hospitals are a ticking time bomb
Doctors plan roadmap out of ramping
The Queensland Government has acknowledged the situation and put $100 million towards the problem, which is welcomed but falls short of what’s needed.
MediFlite
ASMOFQ’s concerns about MediFlite, the “new joint venture between the Royal Flying Doctor Service (Queensland Section) and LifeFlight”, and the Queensland Government’s plan to invite companies to bid for the contract to deliver the long-distance and or high-acuity jet air ambulance service provided out of Brisbane and Townsville.
Similarly, ASMOFQ is concerned about Lifeflight’s Brisbane workforce who are employed on individual contracts and not covered by any Enterprise Agreement or the Federal Award (because the employer is not a “hospital”). While remuneration is not the key issue, the lack of instrument coverage results in these employees not necessarily being entitled to paid breaks.
Metro North additional control measures
ASMOFQ’s concerns regarding the roll out by Metro North of additional control measure including documentation required to be completed by anaesthetists to access controlled drugs (DS4 & S8).
This proposal has since been scrapped at the insistence of ASMOFQ.
Fixed term appointments
The ambiguity surrounding the status of fractional employment held by staff who already hold permanent part-time positions and, specifically, those employees standing with respect to claims in relation to the fixed term component of their employment (like applications for conversion to permanency for their fixed term hours under the Public Services Act 2008 (QLD)).
Fixed term appointments, and this issue specifically, remain an ongoing issue for Queensland public sector employees.
Hervey Bay crisis
The shortage of beds and services at Hervey Bay Hospital and poor access to outpatient subspecialty referral services for the Fraser Coast community which leads to a high proportion of patients presenting or re-presenting due to potentially preventable deterioration of their health, with a high acuity and complex care requirements which are already being delivered at a CSCF level 5 by most acute inpatient services in Hervey Bay Hospital
In response to this issue, Minister D’Ath met with health care workers at Hervey Bay Hospital last month.
Further work on VMOs
ASMOFQ is pleased to announce significant progress in its work to afford Visiting Medical Officers (VMOs) coverage under the Medical Officers’ Certified Agreement 6 (MOCA 6).
ASMOFQ has met with the AMA Queensland VMO Committee who have endorsed the initiative.
Ongoing litigation
ASMOFQ and AMA Queensland PPE use and COVID-19 vaccines
In late March, ASMOFQ, in collaboration with AMA Queensland, conducted a survey of doctors responsible for treating possible COVID-19 patients in relation to PPE use and vaccination rates.
On 30 March, ASMOFQ and AMA Queensland released a statement regarding the survey and received considerable media attention.
On 22 April, ASMOFQ filed an application to join the nurses’ dispute regarding the lack of fit testing of N95/P2 masks at Queensland Hospitals. Prior to the nurses’ dispute, ASMOFQ had already commenced proceedings in the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission (QIRC) about the same matter and in relation to PPE stocks of N95/P2 masks.
As both disputes deal with substantially the same matters, ASMOFQ was subsequently invited to attend the conciliation conference at the QIRC.
ASMOFQ provided feedback on the audits and contributed to the recommendations which were made by the QIRC on 27 April 2021. ASMOFQ will continue to work with QIRC to monitor the compliance of Queensland Health with the recommendations.
West Moreton – Standby Allowance
Litigation is continuing on behalf of SMOs who are working, or have worked in the last six years, at one of the smaller regional hospitals within West Moreton Health Service.
ASMOFQ alleges that West Moreton failed to pay SMOs working at regional hospitals in the West Moreton catchment a “Stand-by” allowance in circumstances where they stayed on-site, could be recalled at any time and were expected to return to duty immediately if recalled. Queensland Health alleges that the nature of the arrangement entitled the SMOs to an On-Call allowance, significantly less than the Stand-by allowance.
Queensland Health have engaged in tactics contrary to its model litigant obligations to attempt to frustrate and delay the proceedings. The matter is nevertheless progressing with a hearing expected towards the end of this year, and ASMOFQ is confident of its position and ultimate prospects of success.