Yesterday it was revealed there had been a 20% increase in senior southern doctors’ rates of burnout over the past five years.
That finding startled the group which commissioned the research, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS), but came as no surprise to New Zealand Nurses Organisation Dunedin Hospital delegate Maryanne Mulcahey.
"I would say that is our story, plus more," she said.
"Nurses are constantly asked to work double shifts, to work extra shifts, and to do overtime on a regular basis."
Nurses provided a 24-hour service to patients, Ms Mulcahey said.
"We can’t just leave, because we know that our colleagues and our patients rely on us to do our job."
The SDHB has recently hired extra nurses to meet safe staffing requirements, but Ms Mulcahey said many were graduates needing supervision.
"It will help but it takes a long time for new graduates to get to a point where they are able to work confidently.
"There is a huge amount of discussion [about wellbeing issues] on the wards ... we need some action, talks are over, we need to address these problems now.
"They know that there is a problem, they need to actually find the solutions to that problem."
SDHB chief executive Chris Fleming said staff wellbeing was an issue the organisation needed to pay more attention to.
Mr Fleming had not seen the ASMS research and was surprised at its findings.
"Over the last three years we have increased resources across our organisation by around 11%, medical staff are included in those numbers, so we are investing more.
"The pressure the southern health system has been under is similar to that experienced by other DHBs, so we would like to get in underneath that and understand what the difference is."
The ASMS research raised issues with staff not taking leave, overtime being normalised, and doctors doing more clinical work than contracted.
Mr Fleming said SDHB staff had applied for more leave than ever before last year, and more had been granted.
He agreed there were issues with long hours and non-clinical time.
One of the pressures afflicting staff has been the high number of patients through local hospitals, which caused bed block, with no beds for new patients.
