News
Media Statements
23 August 2007
Government and DHB leaders must listen to messages about senior doctor crisis
“The government and district health board leaders must listen to the consistent messages of the crisis in the recruitment and retention messages of senior doctors,” said Mr
“Research undertaken for the
“On top of this one of our leading heart surgeons has resigned his position at
“These events follow the numerous resolutions adopted overwhelmingly at our well attended recent senior doctor stopwork meetings describing the current medical workforce situation as a crisis.”
“Our public hospitals are bleeding as we lose one senior doctor a week to
“Second, we must also provide a longer term solution to overcome the increasing job dissatisfaction of doctors in public hospitals. In October 2005 we proposed to the government the introduction of health professional leadership in DHBs based on genuine active engagement in decision-making. This would have gone a long way to providing job satisfaction because their experience and expertise would significantly improve decision-making. Unfortunately, despite our persistent efforts, we have been ignored. We are left largely with tokenism that senior doctors can easily see through.”
“The red light of crisis could not be flashing any brighter. Only the colour blind can’t see it,” concluded Mr Powell.
Ian Powell
Executive Director
