Northern Beaches Hospital – VMO contract update

At the time of writing, the deadline for doctors to return VMO contracts for Public Patient work at Northern Beaches Hospital (NBH) had just passed.

Following prior discussions with Healthscope, incumbent and new Northern Beaches Area Health Service VMOs reasonably expected to be granted the same remuneration, rights and conditions as provided under the NSW Health VMO Determinations. This was not to be the case.

The negotiation process, or lack thereof, caused much consternation for a number of craft groups. The initial contracts were issued five weeks prior to the planned opening date, most correspondence from AMA (NSW) members to Healthscope went unanswered, and responses from Healthscope to AMA (NSW) communications came very late in the process. The key concerns raised by AMA (NSW) were:

1. Refusal to allow a VMO to engage as a sole trader
   Healthscope claims VMOs had been surveyed and that the majority already had practice companies which they would be willing to engage under. This was not correct; and the overwhelming majority did not have practice companies. AMA (NSW) successfully negotiated for sole trader contracts to be issued.
2. Refusal to provide superannuation for VMOs
   In the NSW Health system, sessional sole trader VMOs are paid 9.5% superannuation on top of their base rate for ordinary sessional work. Healthscope refused to pay this and sought to force VMOs to pay superannuation from their base hourly payment into the fund of Healthscope’s choice. While AMA (NSW) has ensured that the contributions may go into the VMO’s fund of choice, the superannuation must be taken from the base hourly payment. This sees the VMO’s take-home pay reduced by nearly 8.7% for ordinary hours.
3. Refusal to expressly allow for extenuating circumstances when a VMO returns to the hospital for on-call duties
   As initially drafted, a VMO who was more than 30 minutes late for a call back would be in automatic breach of their contract. No allowances were made for extenuating circumstances such as the difficult and unpredictable traffic conditions outside the Frenchs Forest site. AMA (NSW) was able to overturn this.

Some smaller concessions were made by Healthscope at the eleventh hour. Revised final contracts were issued on a Friday night with the expectation that they would be reviewed and signed by midday the following Monday. Healthscope also pushed through several unannounced changes to impose even more unfavourable conditions upon some of the craft groups. This included the removal of the requirement for one departmental roster to share Public work equitably amongst that craft group.

It was unclear whether the way that Healthscope conducted themselves in contractual negotiations was a consequence of poor preparation, bad faith, or both. A number of VMOs have indicated that any of the goodwill and trust that had been established with Healthscope over the past few years has eroded dramatically in the past few weeks.

AMA (NSW) will continue to raise concerns beyond the contractual issues, particularly regarding appropriate registrar cover for VMO consultants and properly managed outpatient clinics. AMA (NSW) will also liaise with the Ministry of Health and the Medical Defence Organisations regarding the insurance cover promised to VMOs for Public and Private work.

We trust that outstanding issues will be resolved in due course so that the doctors of the Northern Beaches area may instead focus on what they do best – providing optimal care to their patients.