Tired doctors cannot 'switch off' from saving patients

Doctors across NSW have gone on strike in a bid for better pay and conditions. Video via AAP.

Transcript

00:00Safe Care!

00:01Safe Condition!

00:02Safe Care!

00:03Safe Condition!

00:04Safe Care!

00:05Safe Condition!

00:06Safe Condition!

00:07Safe Care!

00:08It's gotten to the point in New South Wales where conditions are declining.

00:12We're hemorrhaging staff.

00:13We are currently dealing with ballooning waitlists for surgery,

00:17ballooning waitlists for specialist outpatient clinics,

00:19ballooning wait times in our emergency departments

00:22simply because we don't have the staff to see our patients.

00:25Patient care is declining simply by virtue of the fact that we can't staff our hospitals appropriately.

00:30We're chronically understaffed and enough's enough.

00:33Any one of our doctors here who are striking today could make 20 or 30% more money

00:38just by simply moving to Brisbane or Melbourne.

00:41And at this point we're finding that we're losing hope in discussions with the state government on these issues.

00:50We've been at the table now for over a year

00:53and the government has stood up and walked out.

00:56Without pay parity with other states in Australia we're left behind

01:02and fundamentally many of the doctors within New South Wales

01:05are finding that they just have to move into state to do the jobs that they want to do

01:10to provide the care for the patients that they want to be able to provide.