Doctors fear the worst: ‘It will break many’
Doctors across all aspects of patient care say the health system is beyond a crisis and they want Government to acknowledge that.
The 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 workforce,’’ 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 911 respondents said there was either definitely a crisis (93.5%) or probably a crisis (6.3%) in the health workforce.
Many said they regularly considered leaving the profession due to the stress and unpaid hours: ‘‘With great sadness I am leaving the GP workforce in the next few months to retrain. I love being a GP, but its future looks bleak, and I don’t see anyone 10 or 20 years ahead of me who is happy,’’ one GP said.
At the top of the list of recommendations is a call for officials to acknowledge there is a crisis.
‘‘I think until it is acknowledged there is a problem it’s not possible to address it,’’ Auckland GP and trust chairperson Dr Orna McGinn said.
Respondents’ comments revealed profound distress amongst clinicians. The perilous state of nursing, midwifery and allied health workforce was consistently referenced as a major risk for the sustainability of the health system.
McGinn said doctors could not address the entrenched inequities the new health system was intended to tackle when ‘‘we can’t even do the basics’’.
‘‘We are at risk of a catastrophic collapse of the healthcare workforce.’’
Letter signed by GPs and hospital doctors