Doctors Vie For Healthy Rise In Pay

The Age

Saturday May 24, 2008

Nick Miller, Health Editor

DOCTORS have declared the Victorian Government's wages policy "dead, done and dusted" in the light of growing inflation, as they seek a big boost to their public-sector pay.

A 19% pay rise over two years headlines the Australian Medical Association of Victoria's list of demands for a new enterprise bargaining agreement.

AMA Victoria president Doug Travis said government policy to limit wage rises to 3.25% a year was not realistic now inflation is "4% and heading north".

"In my view that policy is dead," he said. "It was created in an environment of a 2% to 3% inflation rate. Those salad days are done and dusted and gone."

And he warned that Victoria, which already has a shortfall of almost 1000 doctors according to the government's figures, was in danger of losing more.

"(Victorians) are the poorest-paid medicos in the Commonwealth," Dr Travis said.

Victoria's first-year interns - the first step out of university - are the lowest-paid in Australia, with NSW interns paid 5% more and Queensland interns paid 17% more, the AMA said.

First-year specialists - the first grade after training ends - are paid less in Victoria than in any state except Tasmania.

"These are the times people are making decisions to move somewhere else," Dr Travis said, adding that more experienced and settled doctors were moving into the private system rather than accepting public pay scales.

However, Premier John Brumby stuck by the wage policy yardstick of 3.25% a year plus productivity gains, and dismissed the AMA's claims about the risk of losing doctors.

"Over the period of the last EBA we have recruited 1800 additional doctors into the system," he said.

"Despite the claims about doctors leaving we have got a lot more doctors in the system. They have come to Victoria because (of) the quality of the hospital infrastructure (and) excellent working conditions."

According to the ministerial review of Victorian medical staff released by the Government earlier this year, from 2005 to 2008 the total number of medical practitioners increased by 309.

But the supply of "full-time-equivalent" doctors in public health has risen faster as doctors worked more hours.

A spokesman for Health Minister Daniel Andrews said 1800 doctors had entered the hospital system since 1999.

"We value the hard work done by the state's doctors and will continue to reward them sufficiently," he said.

Dr Travis rejected the Government's line that it needed productivity gains in return for a higher pay rise, saying Victoria's hospitals were the most efficient in the country.

The doctors also seek shift loading of up to 150% for nights and public holidays, child-care expenses when called to hospitals on less than 48 hours notice, and an hour's pay for clinical advice on the phone. The current EBA expires on June 30.