‘People are waiting in their cars’: Doctor’s frustration over staff shortages

Salaried doctors at Middlemore Hospital are frustrated they do not have the resources or staff to better care for their patients in South Auckland.

Thousands of doctors across the country walked off their jobs yesterday for two hours demanding better work conditions and better pay.

Emergency services specialist Dr Sylvia Boys says at any given time, they can have up to 74 patients at A&E with just a handful of doctors on call.

“People are waiting in their cars. People are waiting 10-12 hours for urgent care.”

Dr Boys was among thousands who took strike action to raise awareness of unsafe staffing levels and better work conditions.

“We go into health because we want to look after people and we don’t have the resources to do that. Everyone of us that’s here today feels that heavily, it weighs on our soul.”

Union members want pay increases to match inflation and make vacancies more attractive, but Te Whatu Ora insists it has put all it can on the table, and any increases would be at the expense of funding elsewhere.

Dr Boys says workers are understandably looking at taking their skills where there’s a bigger paycheck.

“The reason pay becomes an issue is that we can’t recruit. We’re losing people we’ve trained to Australia, who pays more.”

Meanwhile, call staff for 40 telehealth services such as Healthline will strike for 24 hours from three o'clock on Friday afternoon.

Nurses organisation delegate Bruce Tomlinson says the offer of a 2.5 per cent pay rise is not acceptable, and it’s unfair wages aren’t keeping up with inflation.