Doctors outline staffing crisis
Hopelessness, despair and fear patients will die in waiting rooms – doctors across all aspects of patient care say the health work force is at risk of a ‘‘catastrophic collapse’’ but the health minister still won’t call it a crisis.
A survey, carried out by the New Zealand Women in Medicine (NZWIM) Charitable Trust, collated more than 900 responses from doctors working across 30 different areas of medicine. ‘‘The results indicate that we are at risk of a catastrophic collapse of the healthcare work force,’’ authors wrote in a letter to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, health and associate health ministers and leaders of Te Whatu Ora Health NZ yesterday. A total of 923 doctors in GP clinics and hospitals signed their names to the letter, while survey feedback was anonymised.
‘‘So many [nurses] off sick (and some of them because of burnout) that we have to close areas of the department or work there on our own with no nursing support . . .
‘‘Our triage nurses are so afraid that someone will die in the waiting room – so they are all resigning as well,’’ one emergency department doctor said. ‘‘The system is beyond a crisis. I feel sorry for new grads coming into this crisis. It will break many,’’ a senior medical officer said.
Almost all respondents said there was either definitely a crisis (93.5%) or probably a crisis (6.3%) in the health work force in New Zealand. Many said they regularly considered leaving the profession because of stress and unpaid hours: ‘‘With great sadness I am leaving the GP work force in the next few months to retrain. I love being a GP, but its future looks bleak . . .,’’ one GP said.
An emergency department registrar wrote: ‘‘I don’t have the words to describe how awful work has become. I am yet to see an article that comes even close to reflecting the reality of what it feels like to work in health at the moment.’’
The problems were not new, GP and trust chairperson Dr Orna McGinn said, but the pandemic and winter had meant the cracks could no longer be papered over.
‘‘We are not afraid of hard work, but we’re beyond working harder,’’ McGinn said. ‘‘Concerns have been diminished and dismissed; a ‘lack of listening’ has led to a disconnect between decisionmakers and those working . . .’’
At the top of the list of
recommendations is a call for officials to acknowledge there is a crisis.
In an interview, Health Minister Andrew Little refused to admit there was a health work force crisis, only going so far as to say it was ‘‘under extraordinary pressure’’.
‘‘I’ve said repeatedly this is probably the most challenging year for the health system that we’ve had ... In the two years I’ve been health minister, I’ve been asked to declare various crises and health all along the way. If I thought the health system was hunky-dory I would not have backed the biggest change in 20 years ... The system could not continue and was not sustainable as it was before July 1. It had to change.’’
Little said work force issues would have become a crisis if the Government had not started addressing them. ‘‘We’ve got to get on top of them. I’m satisfied that we now have the means to get on top of them.’’
He expected Te Whatu Ora Health NZ and the Ma¯ ori Health Authority to resolve the work force issues within five years.
In the meantime, he believed the ‘‘best responses’’ were being made at hospital levels to prioritise acute and urgent care and said staffing gaps were being filled as quickly as possible.
In Canterbury there are 95 patients in hospital with Covid19, the highest number recorded throughout the pandemic.
In the 24 hours to midnight on Sunday, 336 people were assessed and treated in Christchurch Hospital’s emergency department and Ashburton Hospital for Covid-19.
In the same period, 264 people were assessed and treated at the 24-hour surgery, according to Te Whatu Ora Waitaha Canterbury, formerly the Canterbury District Health Board.
Some 278 staff in Canterbury are off with Covid-19, and many more are sick with other illnesses such as flu. Christchurch Hospital is also at 108% of its resourced capacity.