Delays in recruiting anaesthetists to allow extra acute surgery at Dunedin Hospital illustrates the country's continuing specialist workforce crisis, Associated Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Ian Powell says.  It was a situation that people could expect to see around the country, with different types of specialists, until there was national responsibility for recruiting and retaining senior doctors, he said. Mr Powell was commenting on yesterday's Otago Daily Times article that explained the extra 35 hours a week of acute theatre time at Dunedin Hospital had been delayed until March when it had previously been hoped it would go ahead in November.

"Overworked public hospital specialists want all politicians to make a New Year’s resolution committing them to actively support reducing their heavy workloads,” said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the ASMS, today.  “Specialist shortages mean that too much work is being left on too few shoulders. Compared with other developed countries, many specialists in New Zealand are on after-hours call duties covering emergencies, too often and with too little support.”

“The delay in the expansion of acute surgery at Dunedin Hospital is another example of New Zealand’s continuing specialist workforce crisis,” said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the ASMS, today.  “The planned expansion of acute operating by 35 hours per week has had to be delayed to at least March. One of the major reasons is the shortage of anaesthetists.This regrettable situation will keep repeating itself in different forms ... until our health bosses take responsibility for New Zealand’s vulnerability in recruiting and retaining senior doctors.”

“There are grave concerns over the privatisation threat to Christchurch public hospitals,” said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the ASMS, today. Mr Powell was responding to the announcement today by Health Minister Tony Ryall that the government would be looking at a public-private partnership in the design and management of buildings and support services in the rebuild of Canterbury DHB’s public hospitals in Christchurch.

Attendees at this year's ASMS Conference on 17-18 November will have noted the presence of video cameras for the majority of the guest speakers' sessions. It wasn't the mainstream media.  The cameras were there to record key presentations so that they could be  posted to the ASMS website and made accessible to those who weren't able to attend the conference. Those videos have now been edited and uploaded to our website here.

“Senior doctors congratulate Tony Ryall on his re-appointment as Minister of Health,” said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the ASMS.  “Prior to first becoming Health Minister in late 2008, Mr Ryall used his three years as opposition health spokesperson very effectively to ensure that he had a good understanding of the pulse of the health sector before he became minister. This included the importance of addressing our senior hospital doctor workforce crisis and the need for comprehensive clinical leadership in district health boards.”

Manawatu hockey umpire Jeff Brown is hoping to officiate a few more top hockey tournaments despite being past the international umpiring age.  Brown has an impressive umpiring and officiating record that includes being tournament director of the Central Hockey League and the national under-21 tournament. He was also named top judge at the men's tournament at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games and judge for the final between India and Australia.

“Delegates at the senior doctors union conference today have voted to recommend a collective agreement settlement, negotiated with the 20 district health boards, to their members in a postal ballot,” said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, today. The ballot is expected to be completed before Christmas.  “Senior doctor delegates came to this decision after two days of robust debate. While the proposed settlement might help a little with the recruitment of more New Zealand trained doctors looking for their first specialist position in our public hospitals, it will not solve our hospital specialist workforce crisis.”

“Health Minister Tony Ryall has been badly advised over his claim that there are 800 extra public hospital doctors since he became health minister three years ago,” said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, today.  “Mr Ryall repeated his claim to disbelieving senior doctors at their national conference today.”  “Senior doctors simply don’t know where these alleged doctors are. How can we have 800 extra hospital doctors that those working at the frontline of health care can’t see? How can we have 800 extra hospital doctors when senior doctors at the frontline are being overstretched covering up for the effects of doctor shortages?”

“Health bosses and government need to get real over the exploitation of health professionals,” said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the ASMS, today. Mr Powell was commenting on the concerns raised by the Nurses Organisation and Public Service Association about the recent survey which reported that 60% of nurses who quit do so because of burn-out or because they face unmanageable distress.  “Senior doctors can’t do their work with such a level of burn-out and distress among nurses. Hospital specialists and nurses are professional colleagues. It is their inter-dependent collaboration and dedication to patient care that keeps our public hospitals going.”

“Southern District Health Board boss Richard Thomson is out of order for his unprincipled and unfair attack on senior doctors,” said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the ASMS, today. Mr Powell was responding to the DHB board member’s claim that senior doctors in both Dunedin and Invercargill were dragging their heels following the merger of the Otago and Southland DHBs into the new Southern DHB. “The truth of the matter is that this merger was a forced shot-gun marriage by health bosses who failed to engage their health professional workforce over its wisdom and conned the Health Minister over its supposed benefits.”

Senior doctor shortages in public hospitals are helping prevent the government achieving its target for emergency departments, according to the ASMS. ASMS, the union representing senior doctors and dentists, is concerned at the lack of progress on a blueprint agreed with DHBs last year to address an ongoing shortage of medical specialists. It has produced the sixth of a series of Specialist Workforce Alerts which outlines how critical hospital specialist shortages threaten the achievement of government health targets.

New Zealand trained doctors will continue to pack their bags for greener pastures at a huge cost to taxpayers unless urgent attention is given to improving the state of the specialist workforce.  ASMS, the union representing senior doctors and dentists, is concerned at the lack of progress on a blueprint agreed with DHBs last year to address an ongoing shortage of medical specialists. It has produced a publication Specialist Workforce Alert which summarises the disastrous and financially irresponsible effects of what it describes as a retention crisis.

“The Prime Minister needs to come clean on the influence of international drug companies in the secretive trade negotiations over the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement,” said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists today.

“We are concerned that Mr Key has continued to allow, as recently as today, the possibility of changes to our pharmaceutical purchasing agency, Pharmac, in response to pressure from international (mainly American) drug companies in these trade talks.”

“Already stretched public hospital specialists are facing even more strain from excessive demands being put on them due to specialist shortages in what is a systemic crisis,” said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the ASMS, today....Mr Powell says public hospital specialists are in a really tough position. “They are expected to become more involved and dedicate more time to training and supervising of an increasing number of junior (resident) doctors as well as take on extra work to free up the junior doctors to receive training.”

The continuing shortage of medical specialists in New Zealand is costing taxpayers millions and is harming patient health, the union representing senior doctors and dentists says.  ASMS Executive Director Ian Powell says it is ironic that at a time when government spending and household budgets are being squeezed, hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars are being wasted as a result of continuing shortages and poor retention rates of New Zealand medical specialists.  The third Specialist Workforce Alert discusses this further.

The union representing senior doctors and dentists employed by DHBs around the country says New Zealand’s high dependence on overseas specialists to try to plug the workforce crisis is making health services vulnerable.  The union, ASMS, and the DHBs last year agreed on a blueprint to address the workforce issue, but it says there has not been much action. ..."We are very disappointed in fact that the DHB’s seem to be backtracking in what is a very serious issue.”  They have released a new Specialist Workforce Alert on this issue.

“Senior doctors welcome the innovative support for provincial public hospitals announced by Health Minister Tony Ryall,” said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, today.  The Health and Education Ministers have announced a partnership with the Universities of Auckland and Otago to train more doctors and other health professionals at Gisborne and Whakatane Hospitals.... “While it will not solve our serious national specialist workforce crisis in public hospitals, hopefully it will go someway to assisting provincial hospitals recruit some younger specialists even while this crisis continues”, Mr Powell said.

NZ's senior doctors' union will hold a special meeting on 31 August which will focus on the dangerous shortage of specialists in our health system. Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, tells Breakfast the issue isn't being given the attention it needs. The interview can be viewed here.

“The Government and district health boards need to make key decisions over health spending,” said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, today.  “Last November the ASMS and DHBs jointly developed a blueprint document which identified that public hospitals were becoming unsustainable because of their specialist workforce crisis. ...“Unfortunately there has been too much dithering over implementation of this blueprint. If it is not implemented then the only solution will be to increase health spending by greater amounts than now, as, for example, recommended yesterday by Dunedin senior doctors.

The union representing senior doctors and dentists employed by DHBs around the country are holding a special meeting on 31 August which will consider the workforce crisis in New Zealand they say is still not being addressed. The union, ASMS, and the DHBs last year agreed on a blueprint to address the issue, but it says it fears momentum is being lost. [The blueprint, Securing a Sustainable Senior Medical and Dental Workforce in New Zealand: the Business Case, can be downloaded from www.asms.org.nz]

“Health Minister Tony Ryall has made a commendable call for more specialists to have greater broader generalist skills. Unfortunately this is threatened by the serious specialist workforce crisis in our public hospitals,” said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the AASMS. Mr Powell was responding to Mr Ryall’s address to the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in Queenstown on 18 August.

“Strategic leadership is required if the senior hospital doctor workforce crisis is to be solved,” said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of ASMS. Mr Powell was responding to the release of reports by Health Workforce New Zealand which highlight shortages and the loss of specialists to Australia.  “For nearly a year we have been working with the DHBs to develop a full understanding of the workforce crisis and how best to address it. This culminated in the completion of a jointly agreed document called Securing a Sustainable Senior Medical and Dental Workforce in New Zealand: the Business Case.”

“Claims by Southern District Health Board bosses that Queenstown’s Lakes District Hospital is clinically and financially unsustainable are false and unfair on the hospital’s highly respected doctors and nurses,” said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, today.
“Despite claiming that the hospital is clinically unsustainable, no evidence has provided to support this.  None was provided at the public meeting last week (6 April).  The closest Chief Executive Brian Rousseau has come to provide evidence was to refer to a so-called ‘desk top review’ which was never written up.  All that exists is a letter about which was written over three years later, contains no statistical analysis and does not say what Mr Rousseau suggests it says.”

“Health bosses at the Southern District Health Board need to pull their fingers out over waiting times at Dunedin Hospital’s emergency department,” said ASMS Executive Director Ian Powell. “In 2009 the government announced a target of a maximum of six hours for patients in emergency departments. ....Specialists at Dunedin Hospital’s emergency department have been actively urging ever since for their Chief Executive Brian Rousseau to start planning for it. Unfortunately he was fixated on the unsubstantiated opinion that the problem was patients turning up who didn’t need to be seen. He believed he knew more than the clinical experts and ignored them.”

Health workforce boss Des Gorman has got it badly wrong in his comments on specialist doctor staffing in public hospitals,” said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, today. Mr Powell was responding to comments yesterday by Des Gorman, Chair of the government’s workforce advisory committee, Health Workforce New Zealand.

“The proposal to cut senior doctor staffing at Queenstown’s Lakes District Hospital by 25% is based on a non-existent review,” said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the ASMS.  “In his proposal to radically change Lakes District Hospital, including cutting senior doctor numbers from 8 to 6, Chief Executive Brian Rousseau justified this by saying that a 2009 ‘desktop review’ by former chief medical officer Pim Allen had concluded that the ‘majority of attendances’ at the hospital could have been safely dealt with in primary care.”

"On the one hand, board members are saying no decision has been made over this controversial proposal while, on the other hand, their Chief Executive Brian Rousseau is ‘pooh-poohing’ the concerns being raised and saying he can’t see what the problem is” says Ian Powell, Executive Directior of the ASMS. “They have found themselves in a controversy over a proposal that seriously risks the loss of public hospital services in Queenstown ....The advice of their clinical staff and clinical leaders has been ignored despite the Minister of Health’s instruction that clinical leadership should be from ‘bedside to boardroom’".

The reported shortage of cancer specialists in the lower North Island highlights the wider specialist workforce crisis in public hospitals,” said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the ASMS....“Most public hospitals, both big and small, suffer serious senior doctor shortages in many specialties, not just cancer. New Zealand is losing too many of the younger doctors we train so well overseas, losing too many of our current public hospital senior doctors overseas, and struggling to recruit in a very tight and internationally competitive market. Public hospitals are trapped in a vice-like grip.”