MEDIA ALERT AND RELEASE – Doctors warn NSW IRC that broken Awards conceal hours and unpaid labour

MEDIA RELEASE

Doctors warn NSW IRC that broken Awards conceal hours and unpaid labour

Closing submissions from ASMOF - The Doctors Union, in the NSW Industrial Relations Commission, following 30 days of hearings and evidence from doctors across more than a dozen specialties, have exposed a broken Award system that conceals excessive working hours, relies on unpaid labour and leaves doctors exhausted, underpaid and struggling to sustain safe care.

Without fundamental change, NSW public hospital doctors, already the lowest-paid and most overworked in Australia, will continue to leave the system, severely hindering NSW Health’s recruitment and retention efforts.

ASMOF NSW President Dr Nicholas Spooner said the case and the evidence led by ASMOF has confirmed what doctors had been warning for years.

“The current Awards are fundamentally broken.

“They are outdated and no longer reflect the reality of working in a public hospital. They do not reflect the hours doctors actually work, the complexity of the patients they treat or the pressure they are under every day.

“In fact, the health system would not function without the excessive unpaid labour provided by doctors.  

“For example, under the current Staff Specialists’ Award, every extra hour a doctor works is free to NSW Health. It's a structural incentive to keep stretching doctors rather than hiring more.  

“NSW Health is completely dependent on the unpaid labour of doctors who are forced to absorb endless extra work.”

Dr Spooner said the lack of proper time tracking for Staff Specialists was one of the clearest signs the system was unsafe.

“If hours aren’t properly tracked, how can NSW Health manage fatigue and workload to ensure patient safety?

“Our public health system relies on the unseen, unpaid work of tired doctors. Each day, they give up their breaks, take on excessive administrative burdens and face serious clinical risks, often working hours that go unrecognised and unpaid.

ASMOF said members report working shifts of up to 17 hours, yet are expected to show up the next day with little opportunity for sleep and recovery.

“We cannot continue to push doctors to these limits. Chronic fatigue compromises the safety of both doctors and patients.”

Dr Spooner said unsafe hours, brutal conditions and uncompetitive pay were driving doctors away from full-time public hospital work in NSW.

“It is little wonder doctors are leaving or looking interstate.

“That means fewer doctors on the floor, more pressure on those who remain, longer waits for patients and greater risk in our hospitals.”

ASMOF says doctors’ work has changed dramatically, with patients now presenting with more complex health problems, while advances in technology have increased the skill, responsibility and cognitive load required.

“Contrary to claims from NSW Health, technology has not made the job easier. It has made medicine more advanced, more specialised and more demanding.

“Doctors are delivering new treatments, procedures and models of care, but are still working under Awards built for a completely different era.”

ASMOF is calling for the Awards to be modernised, with competitive wages and stronger conditions to address excessive hours, fatigue, on-call demands, unsafe workloads and unpaid labour.

“NSW needs a system that truly values its public hospital doctors. That means fixing the Awards with pay and conditions that reflect the reality of their work, tackling fatigue and giving public hospitals a real chance to retain the workforce patients depend on.

“Doctors will always go above and beyond for their patients, but NSW Health cannot keep exploiting that dedication to prop up a broken system.”

Darren Rodrigo 0414 783 405