Hospital beefs up night cover

Rotorua Hospital has bumped up doctor numbers in the emergency department overnight after concerns the hospital was unsafe because of a lack of staff between midnight and 8am.

Extra staff are being employed and rostering changes are under way after doctors approached hospital management "deeply concerned at how unsafe the department is due to inadequate staffing and [senior] supervision overnight".

The New Zealand Resident Doctors' Association stepped in and wrote to the health board reinforcing the doctors' concerns.

Deborah Powell, the association's general secretary, said the hospital should be credited for listening to the concerns in the letter that said there was "clear evidence of clinical risk arising from the situation".

Recruitment was under way for four additional senior house officers.

"To their credit, the district health board confirmed, by mid July, senior medical officer supervision 24/7 would be provided and, by late September, additional RMOs [junior doctors] would be employed to provide two doctors on duty overnight. The team are currently working on a new roster to most effectively deploy the additional staff, all of which should be in place by the end of November."

After the Rotorua Daily Post sent the health board questions, Lakes District Health Board chief executive Ron Dunham and Dr Deborah Powell issued a joint sTatement which said four additional senior house officers were being recruited to work in the emergency department.

"Lakes DHB has worked with the New Zealand Resident Doctors' Association to increase the number of doctors in its emergency department, following discussions about workload pressures experienced by resident doctors. The plan is to have the new senior house officers start later this year."

The statement said senior medical officers or consultants were rostered in the Rotorua emergency department between 8am and midnight.

"Additional to this, an ED [emergency department] consultant is on call and available to the younger ED doctors with queries, between the hours of midnight and 8am each day. This on-call arrangement has been put in place in recent months as part of providing additional support for house officers working in ED."

These changes followed discussions between the two parties over some years.