July 13, 2022
Doctors feel broken as system reaches crisis point
A survey of doctors working across more than specialities has found almost all felt there was a health workforce crisis.
Dr Orna McGinn, a south Auckland GP and emergency department doctor and the chair of the New Zealand Women in Medicine Trust, which commissioned the survey, says that’s a word the government doesn’t want to use.
But she says the pressure on the system is real and backed up by comments to the survey from doctors who felt broken by having to cancel surgeries, treatments and even screening because of short staffing.
“This isn’t doctors trying to feel sorry for themselves. We’re actually trying to raise our voices on behalf of our patients as well. We cannot come anywhere near addressing the inequities which are backed into the New Zealand health system unless we can do our job and that’s currently not possible,” Dr McGinn says.
One recommendation from the survey is to urgently train more Maori and Pasifika nurses and doctors.