DHB pay figures massively inflated and misleading

Media release

DHB pay figures massively inflated and misleading

District Health Boards are massively inflating their pay offer by focusing on senior doctors who work longer hours than their colleagues covering after-hours emergencies, shortages and absences.

Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Ian Powell says figures released by the DHB showing a pay offer of an extra $45,000 would be accepted by senior doctors – if they were real.

“The figure DHBs have come up exaggerates average senior doctor income for a 40-hour week by around $50,000.

“Doctors consistently covering the work load of others, and working long hours are going to burn out and face exhaustion, so it is extremely misleading to add these extra payments up as part of an average weekly salary,” Ian Powell says.

DHBs have then added 20% to this false average weekly salary to come up with their inflated pay figure of a $45,000 increase.

“Senior doctors would be delighted to accept this offer if it was based in actual reality, not a figment of the DHBs’imagination,” he says.

“The DHBs’ advocate is reacting badly to the very successful well-attended stopwork meetings. He didn’t expect senior doctors to turn out in such force and is now engaging in desperate smear tactics to discredit specialists.”

Senior doctors continue their unprecedented series of stopwork meetings today with specialists from Nelson-Marlborough District Health Board gathering in Nelson.

To date all 15 meetings have turned down the DHBs current offer and have overwhelmingly supported holding a postal vote of members to determine whether or not to take lawful industrial action. Senior doctors have never more taken this step.

ENDS

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