KEY POINTS:
Waitakere Hospital's emergency care centre has cut its hours because it cannot recruit enough medical staff.
Waitemata District Health Board clinicians and managers have decided to limit the centre's hours to 8am to 6.30pm - instead of 10pm - for walk-in patients.
The department will stay open until 10pm for ambulance and GP-referred patients.
But the restriction, expected to be in force from January 5 until at least April - worries the Resident Doctors Association.
Association general secretary Deborah Powell said the reduction in hours was the better of two bad options, but would create a risk for seriously ill patients.
The district health board had to choose whether to overwork doctors at Waitakere or reduce the centre's hours and risk patient safety, she said.
Walk-in patients needing emergency attention outside the new hours will have to go to North Shore Hospital in Takapuna or the White Cross clinic on Lincoln Rd.
The reduction in hours is expected to affect about 10 patients a day.
Dr Powell said North Shore Hospital's emergency department would be put under pressure, but she was confident it could treat acute cases from Waitakere without delay.
"It is not ideal, but it is the lesser of two evils," she said. "There is simply too few staff at Waitakere."
Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey said he was alarmed at the earlier closing time, but acknowledged the pressures doctors faced.
"It is punishing the community, this huge lack of foresight. The health system has been run down to the ground."
District health board spokeswoman Lydia Aydon said the reduction in hours would ensure patient safety.
"This year we have been closing the hospital on an ad hoc basis, which is not fair on patients. So we thought it was better to make a temporary change to make our service more clear-cut."
Ms Aydon said Waitakere Hospital was still on track to be a 24-hour care facility by 2010. She believed an increase in beds and facilities and a recruitment drive would ensure the hospital was fully equipped.
Dr Powell was more sceptical, saying the Waitemata District Health Board would have to have a serious look at staff shortages.
It was no use having the bricks and mortar without the necessary staff.
She said the shortage of doctors was a long-term problem that was getting worse. The three Auckland district health boards now had 200 vacancies out of 900 doctor positions.
"It is not a recruitment problem, it is a retention problem," Dr Powell said.
"Doctors in Tauranga are paid more than Auckland doctors. Auckland doctors have a far higher workload and have to deal with the pressures of living in a larger city."
