
Adding to the strain is the assault at Southland Hospital last week which seriously injured one of the two general psychiatrists based in Invercargill.
Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand (HNZ) said yesterday the service was budgeted for 7.8 full-time equivalent general psychiatrists.
Dunedin psychiatrist Chris Wisely said under-resourced departments were a nationwide issue, and action was needed to improve the sector.
"It’s become very much and clearly a crisis in Invercargill right now," he said.
"The area used to have more staff, but numbers had fallen after a major exodus."
Dunedin staff were also busy and had been helping the Invercargill Service on a regular basis — however, this took resources away from Otago.
Dr Wisely called for more funding and planning in the sector, which would also be an investment in society — treating people who needed it had cost benefits.
"The first thing they need to do is just address the equity issues.
"If you’re going to attract junior consultants and all that, they have to have a reasonable amount of pay."
A bonding scheme or other incentives could also prevent people from heading overseas to work.
"Australia is habitually offering about twice what people are offered here."
A stocktake of the situation was needed, which would show if other areas faced similar issues to Invercargill and if specialists were gathering in urban areas rather than semi-rural ones.
The country’s population was likely to climb in future, so psychiatric services would face more demand.
"What needs to happen is it is a really clear projection of future population numbers and then to map the infrastructure and put it in place in a sequential fashion."
Aged care psychiatry is also a problem area for Southland, and the aged care commissioner called for urgent attention to the situation last month.
The country is also struggling with a shortage of forensic psychiatrists, as reported by TVNZ earlier this month.
Forensic psychiatrist Dr Erik Monasterio said there had been a national decay in mental health services in the last 5-7 years, with many seriously mentally ill people living on the streets and increasingly in prison.
HNZ Southern group director of operations Hamish Brown said yesterday there was a shortage of specialist mental health care workers and the challenges Southern faced were "no different to other areas".
Asked what Southland’s peak number of FTE general psychiatrists was this year, he said there were four in August.
"One retired and one left Southern to pursue other opportunities."
Last week HNZ Southern confirmed it currently had just two FTE general psychiatrists.
However, one of them was the victim of a serious assault which police are investigating.
Southland Hospital’s mental health, addiction and disability (MHAID) service had a budget for 7.8FTE general psychiatrists, Mr Brown said yesterday.
It was actively recruiting.
"While we do this, Southland Hospital MHAID has local support from Dunedin mental health services in addition to locum specialist psychiatrists and nurse practitioners from across the motu.
"This does put pressure on our Dunedin mental health service; however, we have mitigations including support from our national colleagues."
The Covid-19 pandemic had caused ongoing vacancies in the health system, he said.
Mental health worker shortages were also an issue not only nationally, but in many other countries.
Budget 2019 invested $77 million in the sector over four years, a number boosted by an additional $10 million over four years in Budget 2022.