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Media Release:
StatDoctor backs Victoria's public hospital doctors as statewide stopwork approaches
Nurses settled at 28.4%, police at 20% and paramedics at a minimum 17%. Victoria's public hospital doctors are still without an agreement after a year of bargaining, and go out statewide on 15 September 2026.
Melbourne, 9 September 2026: StatDoctor, Australia's commission-free locum doctor marketplace, is backing Victoria's public hospital doctors ahead of their statewide 24 hour stopwork on Tuesday 15 September 2026.
Doctors voted 97% in favour of protected industrial action in July. It is the first action of its kind by Victorian public hospital doctors in 20 years. They stopped work at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne and the Royal Women's Hospital on 13 August, and hundreds of regional doctors, including in Ballarat and Bendigo, stopped work on 3 September. Emergency, intensive care and time critical surgery have been staffed throughout.
The numbers
The Victorian Public Sector Wages Policy funds increases to wages and conditions at 3.0% per annum over the life of an agreement, plus a sign on bonus worth up to 0.5% of the total cost of the agreement.
Inflation was 3.8% in the year to June 2026 and 3.5% in the year to July, on Australian Bureau of Statistics figures. Funded at the policy rate, a doctor stands still at best.
Other Victorian workforces settled well above that rate:
- Nurses and midwives: 28.4% compounded over four years, approved by the Fair Work Commission on 8 November 2024, after 51 days of protected industrial action
- Victoria Police: 20% over four years, endorsed by members in early 2025
- Paramedics: a minimum of 17% over four years, with about 4% in the first 12 months
All of them had to fight for it. Doctors have been at the table for a year and still have no agreement.
The rosters
Pay is not the whole dispute. Doctors can work shifts of 12 to 14 hours before overtime starts, and plenty of that overtime goes unpaid. AMA Victoria has reported high levels of fatigue and stress among doctors in training.
Where the money goes
When a hospital cannot fill a roster it calls an agency. Part of what the hospital pays is taken as a recruitment margin before any of it reaches the doctor doing the shift. Hospitals pay a premium for cover and the doctor never sees the difference.
Locum banks are the future of temporary staffing
StatDoctor's position is that directly contracted locum banks are how temporary medical staffing in Australia should work, and where it is heading.
A bank is a health service's own pool of doctors. Credentialed once, onboarded once, and bookable directly whenever a gap opens on the roster. The health service owns the relationship. The doctor already knows the ward, the team and the systems, so the shift gets covered by someone who has worked there before rather than a stranger who needs orienting on arrival.
Agencies rent that relationship back to hospitals one shift at a time, and charge for it every time.
StatDoctor is built to help health services build their own bank and keep it. Shifts are posted with the rate attached, doctors keep 100% of the contracted fee, and hospitals pay no markup on the doctors they book. The doctors who work well at a site become the doctors that site can call first next time.
That is also where the money for better conditions sits. What a health service currently loses to recruitment margins is money it could be spending on overtime that is actually paid, on rosters that are actually safe, and on the doctors it wants to keep.
Quotes attributable to Dr Anu Ganugapati, Locum Doctor and Founder, StatDoctor
I am on the doctors' side. A funded 3% when inflation is near 4% is a pay cut. Nurses got 28.4%. Police got 20%. Paramedics got 17%. Doctors have been bargaining for a year and have nothing yet.
I work locum shifts. The doctors walking out next week are not chasing a windfall. They want to be paid for the hours they actually work and to finish a shift in a state where they can safely drive home.
Every health service I talk to is tired of paying agency margins for doctors they already know. Build your own bank, contract those doctors directly, pay them properly and call them first. The hospitals that do it will stop having this problem.
What StatDoctor is asking for
A settlement that keeps pay whole against inflation, pays doctors for the overtime they work, and puts a real limit on shift length.
And beyond this dispute, a shift away from agency hire towards locum banks that health services own, so the money spent on covering a roster reaches the doctor covering it.
About StatDoctor
StatDoctor is Australia's locum doctor marketplace, connecting doctors directly with hospitals and health services without a recruitment agency in the middle. Founded by Brisbane locum doctor Dr Anu Ganugapati after years of navigating the locum booking system from both sides, StatDoctor lets health services post shifts and rates directly, and lets doctors keep 100% of the contracted fee, with no commission, no markup and no hidden charges. Doctors can go from download to first shift in under 24 hours, with payment within 48 hours of a completed shift.
Learn more at statdoctor.app.
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Dr Anu Ganugapati
Founder, StatDoctor
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