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Download AudioThe doors of Middlemore Hospital remain open as junior doctors throughout the county hold a 48 hour strike, but hospital authorities are urging people to see their GP if possible rather than come to A and E.
Te Whatu Ora Counties Manukau chief medical officer for Counties Manukau Dr Andrew Connelly says appointments and surgeries have been cancelled, but the emergency department is there.
He has sympathy for the striking junior doctors.
“We support their right to make this decision and I would also like to acknowledge the work that non-union staff who are not covered by the strike are doing to make everything safe and functioning but our colleagues haven’t taken this step lightly. We all want to see it resolved,” Dr Connolly says.
He says a solution needs to be acceptable to both sides.
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