Union doctors in training at Cambridge Health Alliance have ratified a contract that gives some of them a 20.5 percent salary hike and others approximately 17 percent over a three-year agreement, their union announced last month. But the contract didn’t include specific improvements in mental health benefits and workload protections that union members had pressed for with rallies and support from Cambridge city councillors.
Instead, the agreement calls for establishing two committees to negotiate further on mental health and workload.
One will discuss offering “protected time for residents to access mental health treatment” and exploring “alternatives” to the current mental health provider “to ensure physicians receive the care they need,” a union official said. Another will focus on “reducing workload for internal medicine physicians.”
The union is also advocating for increased pay for doctors who work more than a certain number of night shifts.
A union press release said the contract provides “a crucial intervention to ensure physician well-being, continued quality of care and the strength of the residency and fellowship programs at CHA.” It quoted Dr. Justin Halloran, a resident at the health care system and regional vice president of the union, as saying union members “worked really hard to make sure that this contract would especially help us access mental health resources, which we feel is critical to both physician well-being and our ability to do this job well.
“By taking action, we won support that will both enable us to lead more full lives outside of the hospital while continuing to show up at our best for the communities who rely on CHA,” Halloran said.
Cambridge Health Alliance spokesperson David Cecere said: “We value the tremendous contributions our resident physicians and interns make to patient care, and we are happy to come to an agreement for a new contract with them. The salary increases are a market adjustment, and the committees will be established to discuss key issues.”
The union, the Committee of Interns and Residents, is part of the Service Employees International Union. It represents residents and fellows in 10 states and the District of Columbia. Residents and fellows are getting post-graduate education and experience at hospitals such as those in the Alliance. The hospitals rely on these doctors in training to provide a significant amount of patient care.
At rallies outside Cambridge Hospital in August and City Hall in September, doctors said CHA had reduced their mental health benefits, which they needed to deal with the stress of their work and financial situation and to help patients effectively. Unlimited therapy and drug-prescribing visits from Tend Health, a provider experienced in treating health care workers, were cut to 10 therapy sessions and four prescribing appointments a year starting in July, doctors said. They could see CHA providers but working with a colleague might be uncomfortable, they said.
Doctors also said they might work as many as 80 hours a week.
The City Council voted for a resolution supporting the union on Sept. 30 but only after it was amended to also support ensuring the financial viability of the Alliance.
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