Patient Voice Aotearoa said in a release on Monday there were extreme staff shortages across the nation including an 18% shortage of doctors at Southland Hospital.
That was backed up by Association of Salaried Medical Specialists spokesman Andrew Chick who believed burnout was influencing doctors to become locums or go into private practice to gain more control of workloads and do without the same demands.
Health NZ though said the vacancy rate was not in double figures.
A Health NZ spokesman said in the hospital as of April this year, across medical and surgical areas, there were 70.7 full time equivalent (FTE) senior medical officers (SMO) at the hospital, with 5.1 FTE vacancies, or 7.2%.
In ED, there were 14.4 FTE SMOs, with 1.3 FTE vacancies (or 9.1%). In mental health, there were 4.9 FTE SMOs, with 5.9 FTE vacancies.
Health NZ said it was actively recruiting to fill remaining vacancies and was using locums and telehealth to help cover these vacancies in the meantime.
Patient Voice Aotearoa spokesman Malcolm Mulholland said he stood by the 18% figure.
He said the correct vacancy number was contested between Health NZ and other groups as they disagreed on staffing levels and roles filled.
Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) spokesman Andrew Chick said it often struggled to get clear data from Health NZ about vacancy rates. It was sometimes unclear whether Health NZ was just counting vacancies it had advertised or if it took into account vacancies it had failed to recruit in the past.
"It is worth noting Health New Zealand is acknowledging a 54.6% vacancy rate for its mental health service in Invercargill. At the same time, ASMS was also aware there are also shortages in ophthalmology, internal medicine, orthopaedic surgery, anaesthesia and ICU."
