Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) executive director Sarah Dalton. Photo: Supplied / LDR The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) union represents senior doctors who work in the country's hospitals. Executive director Sarah Dalton said Counties Manukau DHB needed to receive more funding to address its surgery backlog, and there also needed to be the people available to carry out the operations. "There's a limit to how many weekends doctors, anaesthetists and nurses are going to be willing to work in the face of being abandoned by the government," she said. "There's been a real loss of goodwill [due to the pay freeze] and I don't think it's just doctors that are affected, a lot of nurses will be voting with their feet on this one."