Public hospitals in staffing crisis

Busy public hospitals are facing a big staffing shortage. Photo / Richard Robinson

Attracting and retaining junior doctors is proving a major headache for the country's struggling public hospital system.

The Resident Doctors' Association has today called for an urgent hike in pay rates for full time junior doctors, to prevent more of them going casual.

About a third of junior doctors are opting out of the public hospital workforce to take on locum jobs, paying almost three times as much, claims the Association.

The Canterbury District Health Board said it is curtailing leave until August because it is struggling to fill its vacancies.

Doctors' Association spokeswoman Deborah Powell said low wages are self-defeating. She said the haemorrhaging of qualified practitioners is very real.

More than 200 house officers have left the DHB system since December last year.

Deborah Powell said that although it is not desirable, locum work is at least keeping graduates in the country.

- NEWSTALK ZB