State Government and AMA welcome new doctors' agreement

28/3/02
The State Government and the Australian Medical Association (AMA) have welcomed a new enterprise agreement for Western Australian public hospital medical practitioners.
"The Government and the AMA are pleased to announce the resolution of a new agreement," Health Minister Bob Kucera and AMA WA President Bernard Pearn-Rowe said today.
"We recognise this issue has taken some time to resolve but it has been concluded in a spirit of co-operation and a shared commitment to improve the WA public health system."
Mr Kucera said the new agreement would bring WA doctors into broad parity with their Eastern States colleagues.
"There is a high demand for medical practitioners, and we have agreed on salary packages that are broadly competitive with the national market," he said.
Dr Pearn-Rowe said he was pleased with the final outcome of the negotiations.
"The new agreement will assist in retaining doctors already working in WA and will help bring more into the State," he said.
Mr Kucera said the agreement entailed a strong commitment on both sides to co-operate for the benefit of the health system.
"It is important to the effective operation of the public health system that we have experienced, qualified medical practitioners who are committed to the public system," he said.
"We welcome the AMA's support for the development of area structures and other reforms arising out of the Government's Health Administrative Review Committee processes."
Dr Pearn-Rowe said that doctors in public hospitals would be pleased the Government has recognised their contribution.
"Doctors have always ensured they provide the best possible care, despite the many pressures placed on our health system," he said.
"They are now looking forward to working with Government to address system problems and implementing the recommendations and vision of the HARC report."
The two-year agreement comes in to effect from April 1 this year.
Features of the agreement include:

• a parity adjustment to broadly align WA medical practitioners with interstate minimum rates and three per cent annual salary increases consistent with Government wages policy;

• a professional expenses allowance to assist doctors with additional costs associated with continuing medical education and professional development;

• improved penalty rates for difficult shifts, and improved on-call allowances to compensate for the significant impost of responding to out of hours calls. Both of these improvements will help to address current pressures on after/hours services; and

• a commitment to work co-operatively in achieving a better health system focusing on quality, safety and efficiency.