KEY POINTS:
North Shore Hospital has repeatedly been forced to close its acute gynaecology service overnight this year because of a drastic shortage of junior doctors.
The management says the women's health service is safe but a senior doctor has warned of the potential dangers of solitary staffing that provided
emergency caesarean deliveries of babies and acute gynaecological care for women.
The hospital is run by the Waitemata District Health Board, the country's largest and which serves about 500,000 people.
New Zealand has a serious shortage of junior doctors. Vacancy rates in Auckland for house officers (doctors in their early post-graduate years) ranging between 18 per cent and 23 per cent in May and predicted to worsen to between 40 per cent and 50 per cent this year.
Maternity and gynaecology services at Auckland's public hospitals are among the hardest hit.
Senior doctors - consultants - are doing extra work to cover gaps in the rosters of house officers and registrars that cannot be filled by other junior doctors.
Shortages have affected North Shore's obstetrics and gynaecology services since January. Consultants were finding the situation "increasingly difficult", said general manager of child, woman and family services Linda Harun.
"They have met managers to express their concern at their ability to continue with the shortage of [junior doctors]," she said.
A senior doctor said consultants frequently covered junior doctor shifts.
Ms Harun said the hospital had closed its acute gynaecology service overnight "less than six times this year", because of the shortages. During those times, patients were referred to Auckland City Hospital.
The shortages have also led to a reduction in elective surgery. Junior doctors' union general secretary Deborah Powell described the situation at North Shore as a crisis.
Waitemata DHB communications manager Bryony Hilless said: "The situation is less than ideal ... "
Professor Jenny Westgate, the doctor overseeing gynaecology - and for several weeks maternity too - said both services remained safe.
Ms Hilless said a registrar was scheduled to arrive in September and the management wanted a regional deal in which junior doctors from Auckland City and Middlemore Hospitals could move to North Shore if they wished.
But Kay Hyman, general manager of National Women's Health at Auckland City Hospital, questioned the value of that, given the regional shortage.
"Clearly, there's little point in solving North Shore's problem if it creates a problem for us that then means that we need to get the staff back in a couple of weeks' time."
Dr Powell said an appeal had been made to non-working doctors. "We have been seeking people who are out of the workforce to come back part-time or any way they can."