First survey identifies extent of DHB’s snr doctor shortage

27 July 2016

First survey in series identifies extent of DHB’s senior doctor shortage

The union for senior doctors and dentists has begun surveying the heads of departments in public hospitals to get an accurate picture of specialist shortages.

The first survey has been carried out at Hawke’s Bay District Health Board and it shows the DHB is significantly short of the senior medical officers it needs, says Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS).

“There’s a difference between the number of vacancies a DHB advertises, which is directed by how much funding it has to employ doctors, and the number of hospital specialists it actually needs to provide health services,” he says.

“The Hawke’s Bay survey is the first in a series which we hope will highlight the distinction between these things and give us a true picture of the senior medical workforce shortages in the public health system.”

The survey findings are summarised in an ASMS Research Brief, available online at http://www.asms.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Research-Brief-Issue-3-Staffing-survey-HB_166255.2.pdf.

Of the 12 heads of department (HoDs) invited to participate in the survey, 11 took part (a 91.7% response rate). The survey’s main findings include:

• 8 HoDs said they did not have enough full time equivalent (FTE) senior doctors for their service at the time of the survey.

• Overall, they estimated they needed an extra 20.6 FTE – or 22% of the current senior doctor staffing level – to provide safe, quality and timely health care at the time of the survey.

• The extra FTE required above current staffing levels ranged from 12% (2 FTEs) to 88% (3.8 FTEs).

• Despite this shortfall, there were only 4.4 FTE vacancies at the time of the survey.

• Just over half of the HoDs – 54% - believed there was inadequate internal senior doctor cover for short-term sick leave, annual leave or continuing medical education leave.

• Well over half of them – 64% - believed there was inadequate access to locums or additional staff to cover for long-term leave.

• 73% of the HoDs surveyed believed their senior doctors did not have enough time to spend with patients and their families to provide good quality, patient-centred care.

• An estimated 27% of senior doctors were ‘never’ or ‘rarely’ able to have the recommended amount of non-clinical time, which is when doctors do other activities such as supervision, quality assurance, or professional development.

Ian Powell says the results are concerning.

“They confirm that this particular DHB does indeed have a largely invisible workforce shortage, so it is very useful for our members in Hawke’s Bay – and hopefully for the DHB itself – to draw attention to that,” he says.

“The results also spell out some of the unacknowledged consequences of this shortage – less time to spend with patients, little leeway in the system to cover for sick leave and so on, and senior doctors not being given enough non-clinical time within working hours to do the other activities required as part of their jobs.”

He says ASMS will be following up the results of the survey with the DHB’s senior management, and is planning further surveys of heads of departments at selected DHBs.

ENDS

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