Statement attributable to Dr Richard Sullivan, Chief Clinical Officer Health New Zealand

Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora would like to reassure the Northland community that plans are in place to ensure the continued delivery of hospital services tomorrow despite the senior doctors’ strike.

Senior doctors who are members of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) are striking for 24 hours from 10am Wednesday 18 June to 10am Thursday 19 June.

All hospitals in Northland, including the emergency department at Whangarei Hospital, will remain open during the strike action and other clinical staff including doctors will still be available to ensure the continued availability of health services for those who need them.

Some planned treatments may be disrupted tomorrow.  If you have a hospital appointment tomorrow, please come to your appointment unless we have contacted you directly to reschedule.

Any appointments that are deferred due to the strike action will be rescheduled for the next available opportunity.

We are currently in facilitated bargaining with ASMS, where we are working towards a further offer to senior doctors. We are disappointed that strike action is occurring while this process is ongoing.

We recognise the concerns raised in regard to workforce shortages within some specialities and we are committed to growing our permanent medical workforce.

Across Northland we employ a total of 272 senior doctors/dentists and we currently have approximately 52 vacant positions of which we have filled 10 FTE and these senior doctors and dentists will start in over the next few months