The board is under fire from the health union for failing a house officer training inspection.
It was granted interim accreditation from the Medical Council, and has been ordered to get the programme up to scratch.
House officers at Dunedin Hospital lack supervision, feedback, support for some aspects of patient care, and their workloads were too heavy.
''This does come down to management responsibility, and NZRDA for one believes the management of this DHB have failed in their obligations not just to the house officers, but to the patients they serve,'' national secretary Dr Deborah Powell said.
The board had not acknowledged the risks posed to patient safety, she believed.
''The group we are talking about here are our newest doctors in their first year after graduation.
''It is becoming apparent that SDHB management's commitment to quality and training is inadequate, resulting in clinical standards dropping, inevitably leaving the patients these standards are to protect, vulnerable.''
In some instances, house officers had had to seek informed consent from patients for procedures they were not familiar with, which was clearly unacceptable, Dr Powell said.
House officer is the term for doctors in their first two years after medical school.
The New Zealand Medical Students' Association issued a statement saying it was ''disappointed and alarmed'' by the situation.
''When faced with difficult clinical decisions, it's essential that house officers have access to appropriate senior support.
''The identified shortcomings need to be rapidly rectified to ensure medical training and patient safety are not compromised,'' the association said.
Health board chief executive Carole Heatly said the board takes ''clinical safety very seriously'' and ''we have taken on board the contents of the report and have already addressed the areas requiring immediate work and we are now working to address the other areas''.
