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Not just a pretty face : Alarming boys club culture poses risk to women s health
14 minutes to read
Emma Russell is a health reporter for the New Zealand Heraldemma.russell@nzherald.co.nz
Every day, female doctors experience ingrained sexist attitudes, such as being labelled aggressive or hormonal when expressing strong opinions. Not only are they paid far less than their male colleagues, but they re also outnumbered in nearly every speciality. Emma Russell explores the alarming extent this boys club culture is being blamed for undervaluing women s health. Because while gender bias is wrong in any workforce, in the health system, it can kill.
Supplied
Counties Manukau DHB has since last year been working to reduce its elective surgery backlog. It cancelled between 1400 and 1600 operations in 2020 alone due to Covid-19.
The Government’s wage freeze for public sector workers could have a chilling effect on district health boards like Counties Manukau as it tries to clear its surgery backlog due to Covid-19, a union has warned. Executive director Sarah Dalton said while Counties Manukau DHB needs to receive more funding to address its surgery backlog, there also needs to be the people available to carry out the operations. “There’s a limit to how many weekends doctors, anesthetists and nurses are going to be willing to work in the face of being abandoned by the Government,” she said.
Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) executive director Sarah Dalton.
Photo: Supplied / LDR
The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) union represents senior doctors who work in the country s hospitals.
Executive director Sarah Dalton said Counties Manukau DHB needed to receive more funding to address its surgery backlog, and there also needed to be the people available to carry out the operations. There s a limit to how many weekends doctors, anaesthetists and nurses are going to be willing to work in the face of being abandoned by the government, she said. There s been a real loss of goodwill [due to the pay freeze] and I don t think it s just doctors that are affected, a lot of nurses will be voting with their feet on this one.