00:00The doctors I've spoken to say they're frustrated and fed up.
00:05More than 100 doctors gathered here outside Westmead Hospital, one of the biggest trauma
00:10hospitals in the southern hemisphere.
00:12Many brought placards and chanted slogans such as safe conditions, safe care.
00:17Now some of the people that I spoke to said that they work up to 20 hours extra on top
00:22of their full-time hours, which is completely unpaid, and are missing out on key time with
00:27their children and pets.
00:29Some people also cited that their colleagues are moving interstate in search of this better
00:34pay and working conditions, and one lady even admitted to falling asleep at the wheel multiple
00:39times after working for 72 hours.
00:42We're trying to get better conditions for doctors, because at the moment the system
00:45is crumbling apart and we're angry, it's putting patients at risk.
00:48Currently in the wards there's no kind of safety in terms of work hour limits, so that's
00:53something that we're also trying to negotiate as well, because doctors could basically work
00:5872 hours in a go.
01:01What it comes down to is our emotional, psychological safety.
01:05We give up, all of us, a lot of our real lives to be able to do this, and it's not just about
01:10the paid people acting like it is, but it's about our working conditions, our hours, all
01:14the things that we miss out because we don't get leave.
01:17Yesterday the NSW government met with AMSOF, which is the doctors' union, to try and call
01:22off the strike last minute, however that was unsuccessful.
01:26And despite doctors reassuring that patients will be cared for, Premier Chris Minns disagrees.
01:31I can't downplay the risk.
01:33The risk is that senior doctors as well as junior doctors won't be available in the numbers
01:40that are required to ensure that people are seen quickly and that we're able to offer
01:45the kind of health care and help that residents need when they go to a big emergency department
01:52in NSW.
01:53Now that's regrettable.
01:55Because while elective and non-urgent surgeries have been cancelled, patients are assured
01:59that they will be cared for in urgent cases, however you are expected to wait longer if
02:04you turn up to emergency departments.
02:07Strike action will continue from 8am today until 8pm Thursday, with many of these doctors
02:12now making their way towards the city to St Leonard's, where they will continue protesting
02:17out the front of the NSW Health Ministry.
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