Cancer Society Southern head of services Craig Watson said he had been made aware of the issues within the urology department at Southland Hospital in Invercargill, which "concerned" him.
This included two permanent clinicians indicate they would be moving elsewhere, leaving Southland without a permanent urology department.
"As the population ages in a place like Southland, the need for urologists becomes more and more apparent. This isn't an area you can only have in certain big cities.
"There should be a urology service in Southland for the locals to have local support."
The present situation would also put pressure on Dunedin Hospital, with people from Southland forced to travel there for treatment, he said.
While the situation was particularly dire, there had been many times over the past decade which were especially fraught when it came to lack of staffing in Southland, he said.
"When you're already short-staffed, losing one or two means that you're critically short-staffed.
"That’s when access and opportunity are at risk.
"So we need to build up a workforce that's sustainable for Southland."
Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora needed to be less "reactive" and plan its recruitment better, rather than being forced to respond to "crisis situations" such as the present predicament in urology, he said.
"Recruitment for specialist doctors is a long-term game ... We actually should be planning for this in advance across a lot of specialties such as dermatologists, urologists, oncologists in general, so cancer doctors in general."
Mr Watson was hopeful that HNZ’s recently announced "district-based" model for recruitment would make things easier.
HNZ insisted it was not returning to a District Health Board model, but Mr Watson said it sounded like they were.
"Well, it is a decentralised model, so they are returning to the old way of working. But I think it's a fantastic move."
HNZ was unable to give details yesterday about when they were hoping to re-staff the urology department at Southland Hospital in Invercargill.
But HNZ Southern group director operations Craig Ashton did provide a statement.
"We understand how important timely care is for our patients and we want to reassure our community that our focus remains on ensuring patients receive the care needed.
"Southland Hospital will continue to have a urology service in place following the recent resignations. We remain committed to ensuring continuity of care ..."
HNZ was building towards a "nationally planned, regionally led and locally delivered" operating model, he said.
