Burnout and stress blamed for deaths of doctors

Six senior doctors have taken their own lives in two years while patients across the country will be seeing overly fatigued doctors ‘‘every weekend’’, a union leader says.

High workloads and burnout were cited as playing a role in the figure, while the pandemic was expected to exacerbate specialist shortages and stop patients getting treatment.

‘‘We have SMOs [senior doctors] who are still working 12 days in a row, who work eighthour weekends, who are fatigued, exhausted, making mistakes and committing suicide,’’ said Deborah Powell, national secretary for the New Zealand Resident Doctors Association, at the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists conference yesterday.

‘‘These are people who have spent their whole lives putting their patients first,’’ Powell said.

It includes Dr Richard Harding, a Northland anaesthetist who died at home in 2017. He moved from the United Kingdom with GP wife Kate and their two teenage children the year prior.

Coroner Katherine Greig ruled Harding’s death a suicide. Many factors in his death were associated with his job, including long work hours, sleep disruption and stress.

Powell said six doctors had committed suicide in the past two years. ‘‘It is just an absolute tragedy and it is an indictment on our system.’’

A conference attendee was overwhelmed by Powell’s comments, and fled the room.

Thousands of patients will be missing out on treatment because of specialist shortages, which the association sets at 24 per cent, executive director Sarah Dalton said. ‘‘Mental health, oncology, and neurology are three areas of significant under-supply, but we could name so many more.’’

The health workforce is ageing while 43 per cent were overseas-trained doctors who did not stay longer than a few years, she said.

The coronavirus pandemic could add to the strain. While international doctors may want to move to New Zealand, not all would be from compatible health systems and would need training. Kiwi doctors take more than 12 years to become a specialist, with Dalton concerned the population would grow faster than the health workforce.