The Victorian Greens say Labor must stop taking the state’s health workforce for granted, as up to 10,000 public hospital doctors prepare to walk off the job today over unsafe working hours, conditions and pay.
Doctors will stop work across Victoria for four hours this afternoon, in the largest action of their industrial campaign so far.
The statewide action comes after 14 months of negotiations without a pay offer from the Victorian Government. Doctors are also pushing for safer working conditions, including limits on excessively long shifts and consecutive night shifts.
Victorian Greens health spokesperson and former GP Dr Sarah Mansfield said it should never have reached the point where thousands of doctors felt they had no option but to walk off the job.
Dr Mansfield took industrial action as a junior doctor 17 years ago over many of the same issues doctors are raising today – exhaustion, excessive hours and unpaid overtime.
As stated by Victorian Greens health spokesperson, Dr Sarah Mansfield:
“10,000 doctors walking off the job needs to be a total wake-up call for Labor who have taken our health workers for granted and completely neglected our public health system.
“Doctors are being rostered unsafely, working exhausting shifts and being pushed to breaking point. That is not sustainable for doctors and it is not good for patients.
“Seventeen years ago, I walked off the job as a junior doctor because we were exhausted, working unpaid overtime and struggling to find time to eat or even go to the bathroom during a shift. It’s an indictment on Labor who have been in power the majority of that time and doctors are still striking the same issues.
“Exhausted doctors are a patient safety issue. Looking after the people who look after us should be one of the most basic responsibilities of government. It is a joke that the Labor party considers itself a party for health when you look at the way they’ve overrun our hospitals and the health workers who keep them running.”
