Local doctors blank new RHA contracts

Although they are refusing to sign new contracts, Regional Health Authority doctors are prepared to work with temporary letters while negotiations are being arbitrated. The terms and conditions under old contracts expired yesterday, Old Year’s Day. “We hope the public understands that the blame lies totally on the part of the employer and the administration in creating yet again a crisis situation one year after a traumatic ordeal,” said president of the Medical Professionals Association of TT (MPATT) Dr Colin Furlonge in a media release yesterday. At the start of the new year, service at the nation’s major hospitals was reduced because doctors without new contracts did not report for work.

Furlonge said doctors maintain their conciliatory stance and hope the public is not made to suffer for the inefficiency of the JNT. He said the JNT has not completed negotiations but is prepared to issue incomplete unilateral contracts “along with typographical errors.” He said this has been the hallmark of the RHAs. South West Regional Health Authority (SWRHA) acting chief executive officer Michael Harris, confirmed that “not many” doctors have signed new contracts which have been issued to them. Harris said the authority was hoping that good sense would prevail, but the CEO said he did not anticipate any industrial action by doctors. Many of the doctors have “letters of continuation,” he added, which allows them to work in the hospital beyond their end of contract date of December 31, 2003. But MPATT called for current negotiations to proceed to arbitration to resolve what seems likely to be heading for industrial action.

MPATT has written to Chairman of the Interministerial Committee Dr Lenny Saith on December 22 and 29 reminding him of his verbal commitment in February that the RHAs should complete negotiations “expeditiously by March 25.” Saith has been told the JNT has cancelled 50 per cent of the meetings scheduled and the long hiatus of meetings between the beginning of July to the end of November 2003. Furlonge said the NWRHA and ERHA have also failed to attend these meetings. Furlonge said the letter to Saith outlined the issues — to ensure good, mature industrial relations practice; and to avert any shortage of staff due to the offer of incomplete contracts, the doctors are asking for the negotiations to proceed to formal binding arbitration. The outstanding issues which have been left unresolved are payment of overtime beyond 56 hours of work per week including Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays.

The doctors are demanding that their 20 percent gratuity be calculated on their gross salaries and not basic salaries. CEO Harris told Newsday that a considerable number of doctors who signed new contracts, were from foreign countries.   Newsday learnt that 12 doctors from India were interviewed last week for positions as interns at the SFGH. Harris denied that the hospital administration had put a contingency plan in place to deal with any action by doctors. In the North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA), the contracts of 24 doctors expired yesterday. So far, 14 of them have signed the new terms and conditions offered by the RHAs.