Cost of junior doctors’ extra hours skyrockets

THE cost of junior doctors doing extra hours to plug workforce shortages has skyrocketed to more than $70 million a year.

The costs for 202223 were more than twice as high as the year before when they were $33m, figures generated for RNZ by Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora (HNZ) show.

They were also 2.6 times higher than the $23m paid in 2020, when doctors worked long hours to tackle the Covid pandemic.

HNZ was forced by big gaps in the rosters to virtually double the rate it paid per shift in June 2022. ‘‘My reaction when I saw the figures was: ‘Wow, it really is that bad’,’’ Resident Doctors Association (RDA) national secretary Dr Deborah Powell said.

‘‘They were new figures to me, but with 400500 vacancies of resident doctors, they also weren’t a surprise.’’

HNZ agreed to pay almost twice as much per hour in mid2022 for ‘‘additional duties’’ that involved junior doctors doing evening, night and weekend shifts on top of their regular hours, as well as a much smaller amount for ‘‘cross cover’’ work to plug gaps in daytime shifts.

The higher rates were meant to stop last month, but were continuing.

‘‘There are still gaps as some shifts and services have not been able to cover the gaps,’’ Health NZ told RNZ.

Shifts to cover out of hours had historically been hard to fill.

‘‘The enhanced payments were to recognise that we needed cover for those shifts.’’

Dr Powell said it was a ‘‘vicious cycle’’ — plugging gaps at high cost took money away from regular pay rises needed to help retain staff. ‘‘It did take an increase in the rates to get them to do the cover,’’ she said.

‘‘But they don’t want to. They already work 60 hours a week . . . they don’t want to suffer the consequences of fatigue and make a mistake.’’

She said junior doctors were not taking advantage of the system.

‘‘No, the residents [junior doctors] know that we have to cover the shifts, otherwise there won’t be a doctor.’’

The high costs increased pressure on districts that received orders from the government last month to find $105m in savings from staffing by the end of June. The 2500 junior doctors in the Resident Doctors Association are taking industrial action over pay. Last Tuesday’s strike will be followed by a twoday strike from Thursday. — RNZ