Health Bosses Backtracking Unacceptable

17 January 2012

Health Bosses Backtracking Unacceptable

“The backtracking by Southern District Health Board over necessary increases to the number of specialists at Dunedin Hospital’s emergency department in unacceptable,” said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, today.

“Previously Southern DHB had approved an increase of 4.5 emergency medicine specialists. Now its leaders appear to be backsliding.”

“The collective agreement covering senior doctors has a strong expectation that staffing and other support for them should be consistent with the standards of their professional colleges. If the DHB was adhering to professional standards then Dunedin Hospital should have 14 emergency medicine specialists (currently it has nearly 8) while Invercargill should have over 9 (currently it has 4).” These figures are full-time equivalents.

“Whatever the cause for this backtracking, the government has a responsibility to sort it. If it is due to under-funding then the government needs to fix it. If it is due to inadequate management of government funding, then the government needs to fix this also.”

“We are getting increasingly tired of health bosses ducking their responsibilities and leaving hospital specialists to be increasingly overworked and overstretched. Dunedin’s emergency department is an example but public hospitals are riddled with this experience across a range of services.”

“Senior doctor staffing levels for all public hospital services need to be consistent with professional standards and should not depend on unacceptable exploitation,” concluded Mr Powell.

ENDS

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