Junior Doctors Offered $2000 A Day To Cover Shifts As NSW Doctors Strike Begins

Hospitals across New South Wales are offering junior doctors more than $2000 per day to cover critical shifts, as thousands of doctors walk off the job in a statewide strike calling for better pay and working conditions.

About 3500 hospital doctors began striking on Tuesday, organised by the Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation (ASMOF) NSW.

Rallies were held outside NSW Health headquarters in St Leonards, Westmead Hospital, and in regional areas. The strike is expected to last until Thursday.

Doctors are asking for safer work hours, fair pay for night and weekend shifts, and a 30 per cent pay increase to bring their salaries in line with what doctors earn in other states. The state government has offered a 10.5 per cent increase over three years, which ASMOF has rejected.

Statewide strike ramifications

So far, the strike has caused major disruptions including; 370 elective surgeries cancelled, 3020 outpatient appointments called off, 486 chemotherapy sessions postponed, and 21 hospital beds closed. 

To help keep services running, hospitals are turning to locum doctors. Some agencies are offering $180 an hour, while junior doctors are being offered over $2000 a day to work during the strike.

NSW Health Acting Secretary Matthew Daly said the top priority is keeping patients safe. “The number-one priority of any hospital manager is about delivering safe care,” he said. “And if that means replacing withdrawn labour with locum or any other premium labour, they’ll do it.”

At protest rallies, junior doctors described working under dangerous conditions. Grace LeMarquand, a junior doctor, said she often works 13-hour shifts, seven days in a row. “In my years as a junior doctor, I’ve seen chronic understaffing and unsafe rostering,” she said. “I’m here [with] all my colleagues to demand change.”

Health Minister Ryan Park admitted that junior doctors’ wages—some earning just $78,000 a year or $38 an hour—don’t reflect the level of training and responsibility they carry. Park and Premier Chris Minns met with ASMOF on Monday in a last-minute attempt to stop the strike, but the union turned down the offer.

Instead, ASMOF proposed a 10 per cent interim pay rise, backdated to June, as a good-faith starting point for negotiations.

ASMOF executive director Andrew Holland said the union is not expecting the full raise immediately but wants a fair offer to begin talks. “It’s important that doctors have safe and fair working conditions throughout their entire career in medicine,” he said. “We will not agree to any cynical attempts to divide and conquer our membership.”

Some doctors are now considering leaving NSW altogether. Sean Smith, a rehabilitation registrar, said he may move interstate if the issue isn’t resolved. “We’re not even here for a pay rise, we’re here for pay equity,” he said. “We just want recognition – to be paid what we’re worth – as the rest of the country [is].”

The strike will continue until Thursday.