THE Newman Government has vowed it will recruit more doctors to replace those that quit the public hospital system over the individual contracts dispute.

Premier Campbell Newman has told State Parliament this morning that more doctors would be recruited if senior medical officers followed through on their threats to resign.

“If people do choose to resign we will have in place arrangements to replace those people and if we have to recruit people from interstate or overseas we shall,” Mr Newman told State Parliament.

“We will go and recruit other doctors to replace them if they do resign,” he said.

“Do not doubt the Government’s resolve. Do not doubt that we will see this thing through,” he said.

Mr Newman also questioned whether doctors were “fair dinkum” about reaching a resolution to the bitter dispute after giving Health Director-General Ian Maynard just five minutes to explain concessions offered by the Government at a meeting of doctors last night.

“It is about money and remuneration, it is about pay and conditions, it is about collective bargaining and not about patients,” he said of the dispute.

“What I say to Queenslanders is these individuals are not lowly workers on a factory floor being paid $50,000 a year,” he said.

“They are paying four hundred/five hundred thousands dollars a day, they’re highly trained, highly respected, well remunerated and they are being taken care of.”

Health boss ‘barred from meeting’

Earlier, Health Minister Lawrence Springborg hit out at the treatment of Queensland Health Director-General Ian Maynard at a meeting of doctors last night to discuss doctor contracts.

Mr Springborg told State Parliament on Thursday that Mr Maynard was not given a fair hearing by doctors and was stopped at the door on arriving at the meeting by an “interstate union thug”.

“It concerns me that when the Director-General went last night to explain the large number of concessions offered to doctors by the government, in his efforts to implement these changes he was stopped at the door by an interstate union thug,” Mr Springborg said.

“When he was admitted after the intervention of a doctor who treated him with respect, he was given just five minutes to speak, no chance to answer questions and was presented with a pineapple and invited to leave.”

Doctors have previously met at the Pineapple Hotel at Kangaroo Point to discuss major health crises and have held several meetings at the hotel to argue against the Newman Government’s individual contracts.

Senior doctors last night met at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre to unanimously reject a compromise deal put on the table by Mr Springborg, which would have curtailed the power of the Director-General to change contract conditions if the change disadvantaged doctors.

Premier Campbell Newman has responded to questions on the doctor contract crisis during Question Time on Thursday by stating he had the “utmost confidence” in Mr Springborg’s handling of the dispute.

“Why would I have anything other than the utmost confidence in a minister who in the last two years has overseen a complete and total transformation of Queensland Health?” Mr Newman said.

“The former premier said that Queensland Health was a basket case.

“We had the Tahitian Prince, we had $1.2 billion of money wasted on a failed payroll system, and we had poor performance on elective surgery and our emergency departments and the massive public dental waiting list.

“Why would I, and why would Queenslanders want to see the most successful health minister in two-and-a-half decades be cast aside?”

Mr Newman also attacked “rabble rousing” members at last night’s meeting for giving Mr Maynard just five minutes.

He blamed the Together Union for trying to scare people into believing the contracts were bad.

Mr Newman said a six-and-a-half page letter attacking the contracts contained pages and pages of industrial demands but only one mention of the word “patient”.

Mr Springborg told State Parliament the contracts would fix problems identified by the state’s Auditor-General.

“We cannot have a circumstance where public patients are being pushed aside in preference for private patients in public hospitals,” Mr Springborg said.

“The government cannot shun its role to affect the necessary change,” he said.

Chris Davis the key to solving dispute

Meanwhile, Assistant Health Minister Chris Davis has emerged as a key to solving the public hospital doctor contract crisis.

Dr Davis and his wife, paediatric neurologist Kate Sinclair, attended a meeting of 1500 doctors and their supporters in Brisbane last night, making it clear his own government needs to do more work to solve the row.

The meeting was told every Queensland Health neurosurgeon and hand surgeon was preparing to leave the public sector if the deadlock was not resolved.

They rejected the latest solutions put forward by Health Minister Lawrence Springborg, describing them as ``entirely inadequate’’.

After the meeting at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, doctors called for Dr Davis to be brought in to broker a new deal palatable to the medical profession.

They said the Newman Government should hold off on introducing the contracts to allow more time for negotiations.

Dr Davis and his wife were given a standing ovation by the crowd, which also observed a minute’s silence for Dr Sinclair’s teenage daughter, Jessica Lindley-Jones, a medical student, who died in a car accident on Sunday night.

“I am going to share advice I would give to Jess or any of her generation with a stake and an interest in the concerns that have brought us together tonight,’’ he said. ``And more importantly what evidence, what values, what virtues, and what lessons should guide a resolution.’’

Dr Davis questioned the necessity for ``seemingly unfair and unreasonable contracts that reduced dedicated senior public hospital doctors to tears during negotiations’’.

He said the wording of the proposed contracts was ``all about enabling unfettered managers’’.

“In the spirit of evidence-based management, that approach needs to be researched,’’ he said. “Turning to international published research and case studies, we can identify a number of tried and tested measures to increase the safety and efficiency of hospitals.

“Key amongst these are: effective leadership, knowledge of efficiency practices, good management and clinical engagement, and easily accessible and robust information on activity, costs and quality of care.

“Not surprisingly, unfettered management does not get a mention and in Queensland we have already tried it. It failed patients, families and taxpayers badly.’’

Dr Davis said extraordinary care was needed when introducing organisational change that could affect thousands of employees and the patients who relied on them.

“Due diligence is essential prior to change, and of little use after the experiment has failed,’’ he said.

“I am still waiting to see the report on the background to the doctor contracts, the consultation process, the perceived benefits and identified risks, and the risk management strategies.

“In my opinion, contracts should not proceed without transparent evidence of efficacy and due diligence.’’

Dr Davis said any background report into public hospital contracts should have reference to the Australian Medical Association’s code of ethics and address the ethical requirement to: ``Refrain from entering into any contract with a colleague or organisation which may conflict with professional integrity, clinical independence or you primary obligation to the patients.’’

“That is presumably why doctor contracts in leading jurisdictions such as Sweden, the United Kingdom and the State of Victoria are underpinned by an agreement with their respective medical associations.’’

Docs vote to reject Springborg’s latest offer

Earlier, The Courier-Mail reported doctors last night voted unanimously to reject Health Minister Lawrence Springborg’s latest offer to end the crisis over public hospital contracts.

About 1500 doctors and their supporters, including Assistant Health Minister Chris Davis, attended a meeting at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, calling on the Newman Government to halt the rollout of the “unfair” contracts.

Springborg’s sweet offer to doctors

Opinion: Doctors aren’t untouchable

They supported a resolution condemning the “Government’s attempts to coerce them to sign unfair individual contracts” by cutting their remuneration as highly offensive.

The doctors have asked their representatives to continue negotiations.

Last night’s meeting comes after Mr Springborg gave significant ground back to the doctors this week, pledging to change legislation to limit his Director-General’s powers to alter an individual contract.

Dr Davis and his wife, paediatric neurologist Kate Sinclair, who are mourning the loss of her teenage daughter Jess Lindley-Jones, were given a standing ovation when they arrived at the meeting last night.

“The wording of these original contracts is all about enabling unfettered managers,” Dr Davis said.

A bid by Queensland Health Director-General Ian Maynard to end the crisis failed to appease the doctors. Mr Maynard pleaded with the doctors to consider the latest offer, saying he believed “in my heart” the solutions addressed all the medical profession’s concerns.

Doctors must sign the contracts – which take effect from July – by April 30 or risk losing up to 30 per cent of their pay.