THE specialist at the centre of an ongoing contract dispute between Queanbeyan Hospital and three of its senior doctors has hit out at the way Southern NSW Local Health has handled negotiations.
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Dr Vincent Ferraro has operated as a general surgeon out of Queanbeyan Hospital for the past nine years.
But he told The Queanbeyan Age earlier this week that he would not be accepting the new reduced contract offered to him by hospital administration.
The new contract would see Dr Ferraro required to accept what is effectively a 40 per cent pay cut to continue to operate at the hospital.
Dr Ferraro and two other senior specialists have been locked in negotiations with Southern NSW Local Health for the past several weeks in an attempt to resolve the stand-off.
But after being informed on Tuesday that his original contract offer would not be changed, Dr Ferraro confirmed he would no longer be providing services in Queanbeyan.
And he slammed Southern NSW Local Health for its handling of the negotiations saying at no time were hospital administrators interested in finding a compromise solution.
"This is absolutely no surprise," Dr Ferraro said of Southern NSW Local Health's decision not to compromise its initial contract offer.
"This is what the whole exercise was always about for them. There was never a compromise offer, never a discussion or any kind of proposals put forward.
"It was either like it or leave. I assume all these meetings and what-not have been about giving them the opportunity to put contingency plans in place rather than nutting out a settlement position."
Dr Ferraro said he had developed an excellent relationship with his fellow medical staff at the hospital during his time there.
But he lambasted the "unprofessional" manner in which Southern NSW Local Health had behaved during the recent contract negotiations.
Southern NSW Local Health did not provide comment in relation to Dr Ferraro's concerns but a spokesperson has previously described negotiations between the parties as being "amicable and productive."