Front-line hospital staff have been caught falling asleep during surgery, turning up to work drunk and even assaulting patients.
Other cases include a staff member who formed an inappropriate relationship with a chronically ill patient, another who sneaked a puff of laughing gas at work, and several who stole drugs.
The roll of shame, revealed in Official Information Act documents obtained by the Herald on Sunday, shows more than 350 staff across the country's 20 district health boards have faced disciplinary action over the past six years.
The doctors' union said that was a fraction of the vast number of staff working at DHBs, estimated at 60,000.
According to the documents, 356 staff have faced disciplinary action for inappropriate behaviour. Some of the most serious allegations included a trainee anaesthetic technician employed by Waikato DHB who fell asleep during surgery in 2011, and another staff member there who had an inappropriate relationship with a chronically ill patient last year.
The DHB listed 46 serious incidents, including one where a registered nurse was stood down last year after she allegedly took illegal drugs at work.
Another nurse faced disciplinary action in 2013 for "inappropriate use of nitrous oxide" -- the anaesthetic commonly known as laughing gas.
Other incidents include staff members supplying illegal drugs to patients, a nurse stealing drugs and an anaesthetic technician who committed fraud.
The DHB declined to provide further details of any of these incidents.
Medical Council chairman Andrew Connolly said he had not heard of staff falling asleep during surgery but was aware of issues relating to drugs and alcohol.
"We'd be very concerned about doctors turning up to work drunk, and stealing drugs is totally unacceptable," he said.
"If they took two Panadol because they had a bit of a headache we'd say to the DHB, 'God, just sort it out yourself'.
"But from time to time we do see a very small number of doctors who develop addiction problems and they may be taking drugs to fuel that."
Connolly added it was also a very serious breach of professional standards when medical staff developed intimate relationships with patients.
"It is utterly crucial that the doctor-patient relationship remains purely professional.
"Even if the patient says it was completely consensual, it's absolutely unacceptable.
"That's long been the ethical stance of the profession."
The Capital and Coast DHB listed 14 serious incidents, including one in May last year when a staff member in the mental health department resigned after assaulting a patient. Another staff member resigned after being found to be drunk at work after taking a DHB van without permission and being involved in a crash.
At Auckland DHB, only two staff were stood down between 2009 and 2014, despite 53 people having disciplinary hearings. Those included the case of a doctor, Daniel Quistorff, who was found guilty in Auckland District Court last year after giving students dozens of fake medical certificates.
Dr Mark Peterson, chairman of the Medical Association, which represents doctors, said 356 cases did not seem a lot over six years.
"I would imagine the number of those [incidents] that were significant enough for DHBs to take further is very small," he said.
"We have 20 DHBs and millions of patient contacts in a year so 356 over six years doesn't seem a lot. And these could be quite low-level incidents."
However, he said health sector workers were privy to patients' most personal information so there was always potential for boundaries to be crossed.
"You've got to be sure you don't use that personal knowledge to take advantage of situations, which is sometimes what those disciplinary things might be," he said.
"We have to rely on our code of ethics to deal with that."
He did not believe doctors were held to higher standards than in other professions, but said DHBs had robust professional guidelines and processes in place for dealing with misconduct.
A total of 191 practitioners have been brought to the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal since 2009: 31 in 2009, 27 in 2010, 31 in 2011, 29 in 2012, 40 in 2013 and 33 last year.
The tribunal's executive officer, Gay Fraser, said these related to private practices as well as DHB staff.
By Matthew Theunissen of the Herald on Sunday
