Further Strike Action by Members of the New Zealand Resident Doctors' Association (NZRDA) 24 Apr 2019

Further strike action by members of the New Zealand Resident Doctors’ Association (NZRDA) – Junior Doctors for 5-days from 0800 Monday 29 April to 0800 Saturday 4 May

Further strike action by members of the New Zealand Resident Doctors’ Association (NZRDA) – Junior Doctors for 5-days from 0800 Monday 29 April to 0800 Saturday 4 May

NZRDA members will again be withdrawing their labour for 5 days from 0800 Monday 29 April to 0800 Saturday 4 May. This notice affects all DHBs in New Zealand, except Canterbury DHB.

The Bay of Plenty District Health Board (BOPDHB) has been engaged in contingency planning to reduce the effects of the strike action. As we do not have the option of moving patients to nearby hospitals, and while doing our utmost to ensure patient safety, unfortunately we need to once again defer surgical lists and outpatients’ clinics.

As a result of these actions you will be seeing the impact of our contingency planning on your patients. If patients contact you voicing their concerns about having had their appointments or operations deferred, can you please reassure them that the BOPDHB is working to make new appointments for them.

If you have reassessed a patient and feel the urgency for an appointment with us has changed in any way, please re-refer your patient as you would normally do so.

We would be grateful if you could share this information with your colleagues as appropriate.

It’s important that throughout this period of industrial action, our patients remain well informed and reassured that their appointments are being rescheduled as a matter of priority.

Services which remain open:

• Emergency Departments
• Acute Operating Theatres (Tauranga and Whakatāne)
• Assessment Planning Unit, APU (Tauranga)
• Intensive Care Unit/Coronary Care Unit/High Dependency Unit (Tauranga), Acute Care Unit (Whakatāne)
• All Wards (Tauranga and Whakatāne)
• Maternity Units (Tauranga and Whakatāne)
• Special Care Baby Units (Tauranga and Whakatāne)
• Limited Outpatient Activity
• Mental Health and Addiction Inpatients' Wards
• Public Health Services (Toi Te Ora)
• Renal Dialysis Unit (Tauranga)
• Clinical Physiology
• Outpatients Rehabilitation (Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Podiatry etc.)
• Acute endoscopies
• Imaging Departments.

During the strike action can you please only refer patients that clearly demand immediate hospital intervention or treatment?

We appreciate your co-operation through this strike period.

Yours sincerely,

Dorothy McKeown
Acting BOPDHB Contingency Planning Lead