Hearings to fix the pay and conditions for 15,000 public hospital doctors have been branded among some of the largest industrial claims ever made.

The Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation (ASMOF) is seeking a 30% immediate pay rise, along with a raft of award conditions that it says represents a “generational” change for doctors. 

Hearings began last week in the NSW Industrial Relations Commission.

ASMOF told the commission that doctors now worked amid rising patient acuity, expanded responsibilities, more complex technologies, increased presentations and worsening bed block than they did 20 years ago.