The Southern District Health Board seems to have "no plan" to increase Dunedin Hospital emergency department (ED) staffing, and it feels like nothing is being done until the new chief executive arrives next month, Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) representative and ED specialist Dr John Chambers says.
Dr Chambers' union, ASMS, last month criticised the DHB for backtracking on appointing 4.5 additional specialists, although the DHB disputes the claims and says it is working on the issue.
To Dr Chambers, it felt as though nothing was happening.
"I think perhaps people are waiting for the new chief executive to make some decisions, I don't know. Nothing is happening at the moment. I think we need the plan for the staffing of the emergency department in the next few years," Dr Chambers said.
While the ED's performance has improved - in December, it treated or referred 84% of patients within six hours - there were still some very bad days.
"Last Sunday was terrible - [it was a] very very busy weekend, really quite stressful for everybody, including the patients. We are still having bad days."
Talk of reprioritising funding to pay for the extra specialists - or other highly skilled staff - did not make sense because of the sums involved, and the fact there was very little fat to trim from other services, Dr Chambers said.
Southern DHB chief operating officer (Otago) Vivian Blake said there was a plan for ED staffing, and workshops were planned with staff from Dunedin, as well as Southland Hospital's ED.
Workshops would look at the wider issues of staffing the ED, such as rosters, and adapting services to meet the changing needs of the population.
She agreed extra staffing costs would need to be met from existing budgets, as there was no new money. The DHB could not reduce services, so reducing funding to another service would need to be carefully considered, Mrs Blake said.
The ED's performance had improved, partly through an additional three registrars and three nurses which bulked up staffing.
Mrs Blake denied the DHB lacked a plan, or that there was a lack of action, and said management was working closely with ED clinical leader Dr Tim Kerruish.
"We believe that we have got now, with the registrars and the nurses, a good complement of staff in the emergency department. We've still got the question of the senior doctors which we will be exploring at our workshops."
One of the issues being considered was whether additional staff needed to be specialists, or other health professionals.
