Counties Manukau anaesthetists are threatening to take industrial action because of staff shortages.
Forty-five fulltime-equivalent anaesthetists are employed at Middlemore Hospital and Manukau SuperClinic, when ideally there should be 65, the New Zealand Herald reported today.
Anaesthetists said the shortages meant they were doing too much clinical work, and did not have enough time for non-clinical work, such as research, training, quality improvement and auditing.
If the situation did not improve, they had no alternative but to take industrial action by beginning a "work to rule" regime to ensure they had time to do their non-clinical duties.
Counties Manukau District Health Board chief medical officer Don Mackie said the board would be meeting this week to discuss the problem.
Population growth over the past two to three years had led to the increase in workloads for Counties Manukau anaesthetists, he said.
Difficulties in recruiting anaesthetists also contributed to the shortfall.
