Southland Hospital forced to cut 32-hour shifts for juniors

Southland Hospital would have to employ 10 more junior doctors to reduce working hours to the resident doctors association's contract requirements, says hospital chief operating officer Lexie O'Shea.

The association put the hospital on notice this week that it would start legal action if management did not stop rostering junior doctors on 32-hour shifts, which were double the maximum allowed.

Ms O'Shea had denied that any junior doctors were working for 32 hours but later admitted it was happening.

"Our definition of a shift is if someone worked straight through [without sleep]."

Hospital management defined the 32-hour rosters as being "on-call".