Statement attributable to Dr Richard Sullivan, Health New Zealand Executive National Director – Clinical

Health New Zealand hospitals will remain open this week during a two-day strike by senior doctors – but many services will be scaled back, impacting planned care and appointments for more than 13,000 New Zealanders.

The strike will take place at all Health NZ hospitals and services where Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) members are employed. It will start at 0.01am on Tuesday 23 September and end at 11.59pm on Wednesday 24 September.

Contingency planning is well-progressed, and an agreement is in place with the union to provide life preserving services (LPS) throughout the strike period.

Anyone who needs emergency care will still be able to receive it and patients who are already in hospital will continue to receive treatment.

It is very important that our EDs are kept for emergencies only during the strike to protect our capacity to give urgent care to those who need it most.

Non-urgent patients who come to ED will likely experience additional delays.

Anyone unsure about whether they need emergency department care should contact their GP or call Healthline (0800 611 116) in the first instance.

People should come to their scheduled appointment or treatment unless they are contacted directly to have their appointment rescheduled.

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

To maintain patient safety, most clinics will be closed and planned care appointments for surgery will be postponed.

The strike will disrupt care for the entire week. It is estimated that over 1,800 elective procedures, over 3,600 first specialist appointments, around 7,000 follow-up appointments, and over 800 out-patient procedures will have to be postponed.

Last week we put forward an improved package for senior doctors, but this had been rejected by ASMS.

We have applied today to the Employment Relations Authority to fix the terms and conditions of a collective agreement.

We are disappointed this is necessary, but we have been in bargaining with ASMS for over a year, we have attended 11 days of formal bargaining, a number of informal meetings, mediation, six days of facilitated bargaining and accepted the invitation to binding arbitration which the union refused.

We believe all bargaining options have been exhausted and that the application for fixing is the best way forward to ensure certainty for New Zealanders.