More Doctorless Or Closed Hospitals In NZ?

Patient Voice Aotearoa (PVA) has been provided information, detailing the extreme staff shortages rural hospitals in New Zealand are faced with. The following table shows the advertised need for locums in our rural hospitals over the coming months.

A description of “open to any availability” or “open to availability”, means the hospital is in extreme need of one or more locums. PVA is aware that the three hospitals that are in the Far North (Dargaville, Bay of Islands, and Kaitaia) have been doctorless and have relied on telehealth services when patients have presented to ED. Gisborne Hospital has the highest doctor vacancy rate in the country at 44%, and Southland Hospital is experiencing a shortage of 18%. Nelson Hospital’s staffing woes have been well reported over the past few months, with patients missing out on vital procedures and operations.

Te Rau Kawakawa (Westport) had shut its doors for a month during the first year of operation for the new facility last year, as did Oamaru Hospital several times in 2023 after being unable to source a locum. Last year, a shortage of doctors at Greymouth Hospital almost saw the facility shut its doors in November, and more than once staff at Taupo Hospital had to draw contingency plans to shut their doors over the course of the previous year, again due to the shortage of doctors. Masterton Hospital ED has had to “effectively close their doors” due to there being no beds available to admit patients to, was short by some 40 nurses last year, and had two orthopaedic surgeons resign.

Whakatane has had to close its obstetrics and gynaecology service due to having no specialists in the field, and hospital staff now fear the closure of the mental health ward due to only having one psychiatrist. Whakatane ED will be staffed up to 50% when three American doctors arrive in August and September this year and the hospital only has one orthopaedic specialist on call for three or four days a week. Thames Hospital has been reliant on locums for some time, as they require over 12 full time equivalent senior medical officers and only have just over 5, and they are also short of medical officers. Timaru Hospital is struggling to recruit doctors in the fields of palliative care and anaesthesia. Wairau Hospital is low on staff overall and is struggling to recruit more, especially into paediatric care.

States Chair of PVA, Malcolm Mulholland, who has been touring the country and engaging with hospital staff from rural hospitals “It’s bad enough to be so reliant on locums, but what happens if these positions cannot be filled? Are hospitals then reliant on resident medical officers, a nurse, or telehealth services? Will hospitals be doctorless or shut, as has the case in the Far North, Westport or Oamaru? Yesterday the Minister of Health announced a plan for 24/7 urgent care services. Some of the locations listed are where rural hospitals are situated that are struggling to recruit doctors. What will happen if an urgent care doctor refers a patient to a local hospital where there is no doctor?

I sincerely hope that this week’s budget deals with the real issue of why we can’t recruit and retain doctors in our hospitals. Our government needs to pay them substantially more, so we can compete on the international market to attract their services, which in turn, will hopefully create a critical mass of doctors. If the Government fails to tackle the issue, we will start to see more doctorless hospitals or more hospitals shut their doors.

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