NZRDA New Zealand Resident Doctors’ Association
National Executive Meeting Report 12 September 2017
Dear Colleagues Your National Executive met during the week of 4 September for their scheduled 2-day midyear catchup on all NZRDA is doing and should be doing, and what is in the works. This year we also held a delegate training day, so the Executive and delegates could recap on what we have achieved since the March delegate training day, as well as prepare for the next three months, which includes the initiation of DHB MECA bargaining on 1 January 2018. You will shortly receive a separate report from the delegates day, as well as an invitation to participate in deciding the goals of MECA bargaining. What follows is simply a report from the executive table. After noting the normal apologies, confirming the previous minutes and tidying up any matters arising, the Executive always looks at income and expenditure since the last meeting, and membership statistics. During the day-to-day operation of NZRDA, all expenses have to be authorised by at least two senior Executive members, and are overseen by the treasurer, but the Executive also reviews all expenses line by line as an additional audit mechanism. As you would expect, our income is relatively static and largely dependent on membership. Our expenses, however, don’t follow this pattern, as these depend on what we are doing month to month. We have experienced some high and one-off costs, such as providing free 1-year subscriptions to Headspace for our members, and enabling part-premium for our life insurance policy (which provides $10,000 to the next of kin of any member who dies). These costs fell in the last few months, resulting in a loss for this period. However, we are still ahead overall for the year, and expect to break even by the end of our financial year (30 November). Membership, our primary source of income, remains high at around 3400. The work to get current TIs on board is currently underway. This allows us to start informing these soon-tobe House Officers of their rights ahead of starting work, and to ensure they have the protection membership affords them from day one. The number of new graduates that need our help in the first few months is quite high; it’s best we make sure they are members before that point. Delegates will approach TIs about membership; however, you can also help by having a talk to your TI and showing them to the website and how to join – no money is required until December (after their first pay cheque!). Unit E, Building 3, 195 Main Highway, Ellerslie, Auckland 1051. PO Box 11369, Ellerslie, Auckland 1542 P 09 526 0280 F 09 579 6213 W www.nzrda.org.nz E
[email protected]
Identifying future GPEPs also happens at this time of year, as the GP college confirms appointments to that programme for 2018. We are about to commence negotiation for the GPEP collective agreement, so making sure we know who will be covered by that negotiation is doubly important. If you are going to commence GP training with the RNZCGP next year and have not yet told us, please email
[email protected]. Next, we look at ongoing industrial work, including: 1. A full review of progress on implementing schedule 10 rosters (a full report on this will be out shortly) 2. The remuneration review – meeting next week, so again watch your inbox for an update on this. 3. Relief review and progress on getting DHBs to employ the right number of relievers. 4. Compliance, especially around access to and cover for leave and cross-cover outside ordinary hours. 5. Legal action pending: which includes fallout from the last round of bargaining, such as the DHBs’ promulgation of misleading information and inappropriate communications to members and other staff. These are good faith issues, the first step of which is to meet with the employers to discuss. We reviewed our Wellbeing programme. Of the 250 RMOs who have taken up a free Headspace subscription since the launch in late June, most have accessed the app twice a week; the most frequently visited sections are sleep and anxiety. The ongoing work around bullying and unprofessional behaviours was reviewed, and “what else can we do” was discussed. As DHBs increasingly introduce cultural change programmes, we will watch with interest to see if they deliver any further improvement on our issues. We also discussed the Waikato situation, where workload, a lack of supervision and overall lack of care for our members has become very evident. We are engaged with Waikato DHB and MCNZ over matters at the moment, and expect to have some deliverable improvement out to the members shortly. The DHBs have decided not to sign the MoU we (jointly) negotiated late last year on healthy eating. Instead, they would rather manage changes that might occur to our meals locally and directly with RMOs in that DHB. We have reiterated the requirement to get your agreement before changing what is provided – something we also discussed with the delegates. If you are facing changes to your meals provision, contact your delegate urgently or email us at the office
[email protected]. We have a number of engagement processes underway that were reported on, including: • With colleges and DHBs over Accreditation;
Unit E, Building 3, 195 Main Highway, Ellerslie, Auckland 1051. PO Box 11369, Ellerslie, Auckland 1542 P 09 526 0280 F 09 579 6213 W www.nzrda.org.nz E
[email protected]
• •
• •
Issues at CCDHB; MCNZ, including CBAs, e-portfolio, multisource feedback and composition of their Medical Education Committee. MCNZ elections are coming up shortly, so preparation for these is also underway; Council of Medical Colleges over confidential references/referees and inappropriate behaviour programmes; HWNZ over the Pipeline (increased production of doctors from our medical schools through to distribution as SMOs/GPs), and of course their plans to change the future funding for vocational training. This group is also discussing the proposal to have a third medical school!
We have a specific section of the agenda devoted to GP/community members’ issues, be they CBA, GPEP, public health registrars, etc. The upcoming GPEP collective agreement negotiations were reviewed during other discussions about how better to empower our GP members. We also automatically review what is happening with the next issue of The Resident Doctor, ongoing work to improve the website, NZ Education Trust activities, as well as NZMPI and NBAG (National Bipartite Action Group – the national Union DHB partnership group). We also had a look at planning for next year’s AGM and Delegate Training to be held 21–24 March, 2018. A very full two days. If you have any questions or would like to know more, please email
[email protected] or contact one of your National Executive members, whose profiles can be found here https://www.nzrda.org.nz/about-us/. Kind regards, Dr Deborah Powell
Unit E, Building 3, 195 Main Highway, Ellerslie, Auckland 1051. PO Box 11369, Ellerslie, Auckland 1542 P 09 526 0280 F 09 579 6213 W www.nzrda.org.nz E
[email protected]
