The two 48-hour strikes and the shortage of anaesthetists at the hospital have already caused some delays to elective surgery lists in all surgical areas.
Mr Bunton, a cardiac surgeon, said there were up to 15 heart patients who could wait longer than planned if there was more disruption to operating times in the next month. (Patients on the waiting list for procedures such as bypasses are guaranteed surgery within six months.)
Anybody on a waiting list for procedures to correct narrowing or blocking of the arteries was at increased risk and the longer they were on the list, the greater the risk, although he could not " put a figure on it".
The hospital had 60 patients on the waiting list and another 30 who did not have quite the number of points to be on the list but who were under active review and could be placed on the list if their situation deteriorated.
In the past year, the hospital had been generally keeping pace with the six-month target. It would be ideal if all patients had to wait three months or less, but staffing and resources meant that was not possible.
One of the factors which affected waiting lists was the amount of acute heart surgery which might be required.
At the moment, that made up about half of the procedures performed at the hospital, Mr Bunton said. The hospital had been experiencing increased acute demand in all of its services.
At this stage, the New Zealand Resident Doctors Association has not ruled out more strikes. Stopwork meetings for junior doctors have been scheduled for the week starting May 26.
No meeting dates have yet been announced for the union and the district health boards to meet and there appears to have been no progress towards a settlement during the month, despite the strike action.
RDA general secretary Deborah Powell has indicated that the amount the doctors would agree to is between the 4.25% offered by the boards and the 10% sought by the union.
DHBs spokesman David Meates said the board would be meeting in the next week to discuss the approach to getting back into negotiations.
"There will be a settlement. We do need to get a settlement. Now that we're through the strike the focus will now be on finding a way forward."
Junior doctors have expressed fears that some conditions of their old contract could be lost once the collective agreement goes a year past its expiry at the end of June.
