In a memo issued to the public, Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora (HNZ) service manager Rebecca Jewell said children on the waiting list classed as needing a "routine" appointment will experience extended wait times "as a result of our staff shortages".
Ms Jewell’s memo, which bears an October 2025 date, said HNZ did not expect this issue to be resolved any earlier than July 2026.
"Please be assured that for those children triaged as semi-urgent and urgent we are aiming for them to still be seen in the usual time frames."
The memo said the department was experiencing a "high number of vacancies in the senior medical officer (specialist consultant) team".
"At the current time, most follow-up appointments are likely to be delayed beyond the requested time frame.
"Please be assured that we are regularly reviewing the situation and prioritising semi-urgent and urgent follow-ups and are booking these appointments as best we can with the resources we have."
Ms Jewell also advised people not to contact their specialist while they were waiting for an appointment, but instead keep in touch with their general practitioner, as they would be able to liaise with the specialist as
appropriate.
"Additionally, should you have any immediate serious concern regarding your child’s condition, please attend the Emergency Department."
Association of Salaried Medical Specialists chief executive Sarah Dalton said this situation was repeating itself across the country, as staff shortages began to exacerbate problems.
"It is an increasingly common thing to be happening in hospitals all around New Zealand, where services that are understaffed are being asked to or required to send out letters to patients on their books explaining kinds of delays to care that are outlined.
"But it’s a real concern, because what our members tell us is that while it is better that people understand what the situation is ... it’s far from ideal.
"It’s not what they would like their services to be doing."
Ms Dalton said staff shortages at the hospital also placed pressures on GPs to perform more tasks.
"GPs are having to try to manage ongoing care for patients who should be being seen by a hospital specialist — that puts a lot of pressure on the GP, both in terms of numbers of patients to see, but also in terms of the care of the patient who’s been referred for good reasons to the hospital service."
Ms Dalton said the health system had "addressed" this issue in the past by simply seeing only those patients of highest priority.
"This is the most common method, unfortunately, which means fewer patients are able to be seen, so the barrier for accessing specialist care becomes higher, or people just aren’t seen at all."
The new government targets might have tilted things somewhat away from second appointments, she said.
"The government’s targets on first specialist appointments is potentially coming into play here, because there is pressure on services to do more first specialist appointments, which sometimes comes at a cost of follow-up appointments. And the other issue is for patients who require ongoing medical care and don’t require surgeries."
Ms Dalton said it was not good enough for senior HNZ officials to "put their heads in the sand" instead of confronting the changing job market.
"The international recruitment market for a number of specialist roles is tight — Australia is actively recruiting and we are competing with Australia in this market.
"But HNZ is not being clear about where their workforce planning is at and what measures they are taking to address these issues."
Wait-list data released by HNZ showed that as of the September quarter 1159 were on the waitlist for their first appointment with a paediatric specialist in the Southern district.
Of those, 637 had been waiting more than 120 days.
HNZ said in a statement its paediatric team at Dunedin Hospital was "working hard to ensure patients continue to receive timely care".
The team was budgeted to have 5.8 FTE senior medical officers but was one FTE short and recruiting to fill the position.
"We continue to triage paediatric patients based on clinical need and are focused on managing our waitlists for the service within expected timeframes.
"As always, we encourage families who may be on the waiting list to advise their GP if a child’s condition changes, and GPs will update our paediatric team."
