{"id":81461,"date":"2025-10-16T04:54:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T04:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/81461\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T04:54:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T04:54:07","slug":"simeon-brown-accuses-doctors-of-crossing-ethical-line-amid-strike-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/81461\/","title":{"rendered":"Simeon Brown accuses doctors of crossing ‘ethical line’ amid strike action"},"content":{"rendered":"

Health Minister Simeon Brown has come out firing at the senior doctors’ annual conference, accusing them of “crossing an ethical line” with industrial action<\/a> that was hurting patients.<\/p>\n

The meeting was at Te Papa in Wellington on Thursday, which comes ahead of further strike action<\/a> next week.<\/p>\n

In his speech to the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, he’s called on doctors to call off their strike and put patients before politics.<\/p>\n

There were audible cries of disbelief when he said the action \u2014 while their legal right \u2014 had “crossed an ethical line”.<\/p>\n

Brown said strikes had seen thousands of procedures cancelled or delayed, and there would be more delays next week.<\/p>\n

The room erupted in laughter when he said he had been advised by Health NZ that the average salary for a senior doctor was $325,000, and the employer’s offer represented a $160 million pay rise.<\/p>\n

“No-one dispute that doctors need to be recognised for the job you do, but New Zealanders also deserve a health system that works for them,” Brown said.<\/p>\n

He said patients were paying the price for the strike action, and accused the union of walking away from negotiations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Patients should never be collateral damage in disputes between management and unions.”<\/p>\n

Senor doctors would be joining the strike set for later this month.<\/p>\n

It’s been coined a ‘mega strike’ and is shaping up to be the largest in decades, with an estimated 100,000 workers involved, including nurses<\/a>, dentists, healthcare workers and teachers.<\/p>\n

They want safe staffing levels, better pay and conditions, as well as more respect and recognition.<\/p>\n

Senior doctors announced they would join the strike earllier this month. Members of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists voted 83% in favour of a four-hour strike on Thursday October 23 from 11am.<\/p>\n

The union said its officials had twice this month asked for bargaining but that offer had been rejected by Health NZ.<\/p>\n

rnz.co.nz<\/a><\/p>\n

The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including a former Prime Minister dies, coroner says teen had been huffing nitrous oxide before a fatal crash, NRL clamps down on possible R360 defectors. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Health Minister Simeon Brown has come out firing at the senior doctors’ annual conference, accusing them of “crossing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[134,111,43,139,69,135,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-81461","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-wellington"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}