Surgeons at the South East Regional Hospital are facing pay cuts of 30 per cent, in a move that may force some to leave the region.
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The surgeons must sign new contracts at the end this week. But some said hospital management claim SERH is no longer a rural hospital, so are only offering standard metropolitan contracts with no Rural Doctors Settlement Package.
This package provides incentives for doctors to work in the country, as rural doctors do more on call work, travel further, have less support, bill less and are more isolated than their city-based colleagues.
“The problem working in Bega as a surgeon is that on call is onerous and we don’t have access to a private inpatient facility, which is a disincentive for specialists looking at working in the country,” Bega-based orthopedic surgeon Matthew Nott said.
He said the withdrawal has made a group of surgeons consider how much on call service they can provide to SERH, with some having to spend more time in or even relocate to Canberra or Sydney.
“The money saved by removing the rural doctors support package would be spent on locums from out of the area,” Dr Nott said.
“It’s been a very disappointing development and a very disappointing approach from our administration who have been unwilling to discuss the issue.
“If you lose a specialist in the country, it is very hard to replace them.”
Chris Phoon, another orthopedic surgeon at the hospital, said if the executive and hospital managers were willing to lead by example and “tighten their belts” the surgeons would match their 30 per cent pay cut.
“It’s just a shameless attempt to cut costs. We are in an area of serious medical shortage. These cuts seriously threaten our ability to recruit senior medical staff.
“The costs in the country are really high, as while we have the Bega Valley Private Hospital we can only do day surgery cases there and have to travel to Sydney, Canberra or Melbourne to do major private cases on local patients,” Dr Phoon said.
“We have five days operating out of the public hospital here to support our practice for a month.”
Another orthopedic surgeon, Krishnankutty Rajesh, said the surgeons want to sign the same rural contracts they have always been offered in Bega before this administration.
Hospital is not small or remote
The local health district has said a package that provides incentives for rural doctors is no longer relevant to the South East Regional Hospital.
A spokesperson from Southern NSW Local Health District said specialist visiting medical officers (VMOs) at SERH – including Doctors Nott, Phoon and Rajesh – were being offered standard fee-for-service contracts rather than contracts under the Rural Doctors Settlement Package (RDSP).
“SNSWLHD has consulted extensively with relevant specialists since late last year in preparation for the renewal of their contracts in July this year,” the spokesperson said.
They said SERH did not meet the criteria for a Rural Doctors Association facility as, with more than 110 beds, it was not small or remote.
Also, as “a gesture of good faith” the SNSWLHD had agreed to extend the RDSP contracts this year for a further three months to September 30 and an offer of one-off compensation for the transitional arrangements had been made to the VMOs.
SNSWLHD was developing contingency plans to provide relevant services if the matter was not resolved by September 30.