Hospital crying out for doctors

By ANGELA GREGORY

The future of Bay of Islands Hospital services is uncertain because of a national shortage of doctors, says Northland Health.

Chief executive Ken Whelan said the dearth of hospital doctors was extremely serious and services might soon have to be cut.

Closure was not on the cards because the mid-north needed a hospital, he said, but more patients might have to be transferred to Whangarei.

Mr Whelan said it was difficult to attract staff to the hospital in Kawakawa, and there were no easy solutions.

In some cases locum doctors were paid twice the going rate to get them to work there. Since last October, the 25-bed hospital had seen more than 20 doctors come and go.

Only one of the three at present employed was permanent.

Mr Whelan said the issue facing the hospital was of national concern.

"We continue to compete against many other hospitals both in New Zealand and overseas - there are simply not enough doctors to go around."

He said the problems that made it harder to attract doctors to the area included a lack of employment opportunities for partners and a perception of a lack of schooling options.

The relatively small hospital was also not viewed as improving doctors' career prospects.

Mr Whelan said the strict controls on employing overseas-trained doctors had limited many from coming.

He believed the rules could be relaxed without compromising standards.

Northland Health was doing everything it could to rectify the problem and would continue its extensive recruitment drive, which included emphasising the beautiful Bay of Islands on a website.

Mr Whelan said the strategy seemed to work at Kaitaia, but that hospital was bigger and, unlike Kawakawa, offered 24-hour surgical care.