Resident doctors say they have to speak out about the need for safer hours with some having to work 12 day shifts in a row.
The New Zealand Resident Doctors' Association has said while Lakes District Health Board had made some improvements to its rosters, it still had a way to go to creating a safer working environment for its resident doctors.
The Association's Safer Hours campaign seeks to have health boards throughout the country reduce current rostering patterns of seven (10 hour) night shifts in a row to a maximum of four; and from 12 days in a row with only two days off before returning to work, to a maximum 10 (with four days off), on affected rosters.
The association says in Lakes District Health Board's case, three rosters were still affected and Rotorua Hospital needed to employ a further five doctors to rectify the situation.
Dr Tom Reynolds, who works at Rotorua Hospital and is the Association's delegate for the health board, said the board had made changes but "the wheels of progress [were] grinding slowly".
