Contract negotiations between ACT Health and the Visiting Medical Officers Association have been cancelled once again with the government accused of making "unprecedented and unreasonable" demands.
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President of the VMOA Dr Peter Hughes said two meetings had been cancelled by the government in August because the association had not agreed to refrain from challenging the negotiating agents.
The first meeting was cancelled by ACT Health Director-General Nicole Feely on August 12 because three "threshold issues" needed to be met before negotiation could commence.
She said the VMOA needed to declare it would not challenge the negotiations agents and acknowledge the receipt of a document outlining potential changes. Dr Feely also requested the VMOA and the Australian Medical Association detail discussion points prior to beginning negotiation. When the first meeting was cancelled, Dr Hughes said he was concerned ACT Health were issuing demands even before negotiation had begun.
"They are being very autocratic and assuming powers they don't have such as being able to cancel scheduled meetings" he said.
But an ACT Health spokeswoman said it was reasonable for all parties to agree on who should be involved in negotiations before they begin.
"This will allow negotiations to commence in good faith," she said. "The AMA has already agreed to these arrangements."
The spokeswoman said a member of the VMOA negotiation team had previously questioned the validity of negotiating agents.
"It is therefore necessary for the VMOA to confirm their position on this threshold issue before formal negotiations begin" she said.
"If the VMOA have concerns about the standing of the negotiating agents they should raise this now not during the negotiating process."
According to Dr Hughes, a negotiation period of August 5 to November 4 had been set by Minister for Health Simon Corbell.
Contract negotiations for visiting medical officers have been complicated in recent years with neither side able to agree with some terms and conditions.
"The first VMO contracts were drawn up in 1976 and they've been negotiated every three years since then, sometimes by agreement and sometimes through arbitration," Dr Hughes said.
"There has been arbitration on every occasion since 2003 after a period of negotiation and while we are not always happy with what we get, there is a result."
Dr Hughes said there were between 200 and 220 visiting medical officers in the ACT and they were essential for the operations of public hospitals.
