Senior doctors welcome new Medical Council Chair
Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists The senior doctors’ union welcomes the election of Dr Curtis Walker as the Medical Council’s new chair. The Medical Council of New Zealand announced yesterday that Dr Walker, a renal and general physician at MidCentral District Health Board, is to take over the role from Auckland surgeon Andrew Connolly […]
Read More →Junior doctors strike as dispute continues
Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – Press Release/Statement: Headline: Junior doctors strike as dispute continues Junior doctors are on strike again this morning for two days as tension mounts in public hospitals from strikes. The strike from 8am Tuesday until early Thursday is the third such strike by the doctors since mid January. The […]
Read More →Opinion: Ian Powell – Leadership needed on safe staffing
Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists When Health Minister David Clark was publicly criticised for dropping a requirement on his health ministry to publish the results of a set of narrow and misleading health targets in public hospitals, I defended him. The Minister’s decision to drop this reporting showed a willingness to engage in a […]
Read More →How we can overcome cancer inequality in New Zealand
Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – Press Release/Statement: Headline: How we can overcome cancer inequality in New Zealand Māori are 20% more likely than non-Māori to get cancer, and nearly twice as likely to die from it, and addressing disparities in incidence and care will be a key focus of cancer strategy into the future. […]
Read More →Hospital specialists under increasing pressure due to under-estimated strength of strikes
Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists “Health bosses have under-estimated both the level of support for the ongoing strikes by resident (junior) doctors and the impact on hospital specialists who are shouldering heavy workloads as a result,” says Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS). Resident medical officers (RMOs) who […]
Read More →Health Minister fast-tracking cancer plan amid criticism
Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – Press Release/Statement: Headline: Health Minister fast-tracking cancer plan amid criticism Health Minister David Clark is fast tracking a national action plan for cancer. It comes as a conference on cancer highlights major flaws in the public health system. The conference, held by Otago University and the Cancer Society, […]
Read More →Waitemata DHB survey highlights severe hospital specialist shortages and stress
Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – Press Release/Statement: Headline: Waitemata DHB survey highlights severe hospital specialist shortages and stress “A survey of senior doctors at the Waitemata District Health Board highlights the stress felt by heads of department as they try to make do with too few staff”, says Ian Powell, Executive Director of […]
Read More →Meningococcal disease cases on the rise in NZ
Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – Press Release/Statement: Headline: Meningococcal disease cases on the rise in NZ New figures out today show a steady increase in cases of meningococcal disease in New Zealand since 2014, including those of group W, the strain responsible for the outbreak in Northland. Professor Martin Maiden has been researching […]
Read More →Research highlights hospital specialist shortage
Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – Press Release/Statement: Headline: Research highlights hospital specialist shortage New Zealand needs at least another 1000 medical specialists to meet our growing health needs. That is the finding of two separate assessments of New Zealand’s specialist workforce needs in a new research paper published by the Association of Salaried […]
Read More →Opioid-related deaths associated with pharmaceutical marketing of opioid products
Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – Press Release/Statement: Headline: Opioid-related deaths associated with pharmaceutical marketing of opioid products Almost 400,000 Americans died from opioid overdoses between 1999 and 2017, and 47,600 deaths occurred in 2017 (67.8% of deaths related to drug overdoses for that year), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Among all […]
Read More →Solution to district health board financial deficits rests with the Government
Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists “The solution to district health boards’ financial deficits rests with the Government.” This was response to the published report that almost all DHBs were tracking towards financial deficits for the financial year ending 30 June from Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS). Read the […]
Read More →Wellington GPs to strike again
Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists GPs at Wellington’s Ora Toa Health practices will strike again tomorrow (FRIDAY) for a full day because of the employer’s stubborn refusal to include dentists in the collective agreement. This is the second full-day strike – the first was on Christmas Eve – and follows a series of shorter […]
Read More →Dear David – A new year challenge
Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Health Minister David Clark could make a good start to 2019 by admitting there is a crisis in the specialist workforce, Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) Executive Director Ian Powell says. Mr Powell says specialists working in public hospitals are disappointed Dr Clark has yet to commit to […]
Read More →Christmas Eve strike at five Wellington practices
Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Doctors at five Wellington practices will strike for a full day tomorrow in the final action in a set of rolling strikes. Further strikes are likely in the new year because of Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira’s continued refusal to allow dentist employees to join the collective agreement, says […]
Read More →Season’s greetings!
Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists The ASMS National Executive and national office staff wish you all a safe and happy holiday season. The national office will close early on the afternoon of Monday 24 December 2018 and reopen on Thursday 3 January 2019. If you have an urgent query over this period, please email […]
Read More →More GP strikes likely in the new year
Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Efforts to avert a full-day Christmas Eve strike have failed, and further strikes are now likely, after Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira again refused to engage with the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS). Twenty-one GPs at Ora Toa Health practices in Wellington are taking part in rolling strike […]
Read More →Unions urge Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira (Ora Toa Health) to find compassion this Christmas
Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – Press Release/Statement: Headline: Unions urge Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira (Ora Toa Health) to find compassion this Christmas Council of Trade Unions Secretary Sam Huggard says that he is appalled health workers at one of the highest-needs health providers in the country are being forced into industrial action […]
Read More →Last ditch effort to resolve industrial action
Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) and Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira (Ora Toa Health) will meet tomorrow (Wednesday) in a last-gasp effort to resolve industrial action and prevent a full-day strike on Christmas Eve. Tomorrow will also see the fifth day of limited strike action when 21 […]
Read More →Hopes high for positive change following mental health and addictions review
Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – Press Release/Statement: Headline: Hopes high for positive change following mental health and addictions review The Mental Health and Addiction inquiry report released this month by Health Minister David Clark is the most significant review of the sector since the 1990s and looks set to lead to an overhaul […]
Read More →Second Wellington GP strike planned for tomorrow
Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Doctors at five Wellington general practices are due to strike for an hour tomorrow morning, the second in a series of walkouts over the exclusion of their dentist colleagues from their collective employment agreement. Twenty-one doctors at Iwi health provider practices in Porirua, Cannons Creek, Titahi Bay and Newtown […]
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