On-site doctors have been replaced by a telehealth service overnight in Dargaville Hospital.
Photo: 123rf

The Far North mayor says doctor shortages are not limited to the Dargaville Hospital and if whānau can even find a doctor to go to, they are forced to travel hours to get care.

A memo leaked to RNZ has revealed Dargaville Hospital no longer has an on-site doctor overnight and is relying on a telehealth service and nurses.

Dargaville, Kaitaia and Kawakawa hospitals are short 10 senior doctors, more than one in three positions vacant, while resident doctor cover is described as “ad hoc” due to lack of coordinated recruitment and funding.

Far North District Mayor Moko Tepania said this was not a new problem.

“We’ve been very much aware of the shortages we’ve had just in primary health care with the lack of general practitioners in the Far North.”

The Hokianga Community Hospital was also facing problems last year, he said.

Population growth in the region was putting pressure on services, he said.

There had been another 7000 new residents in the Far North with the region growing 9.5 percent between the last two censuses, he said.

Northland was also a huge region with significant distances between its centres, he said.

“This is extremely worrying … if people can’t access the health care, or the urgent health care that they require at you know at their local hospital it’s just going to put more pressure on them as families to have to try and get to say Whangārei or Auckland for healthcare services or they’re not going to go and it’s going to get worse and we’re going to have to use a helicopter to get people around.”

Tepania said they would be looking to Health Minister Shane Reti who is also MP for Whangārei to see what the government could do to help out in this space.

Reti told Morning Report it was not a desirable position to be in.

Reti said there was funding for 10 positions across Northland and people there could be assured that they would looked after by “competent and professional staff and their level of care will be met”, but that the person may not be a doctor.

Rural Aotearoa was always going to need more funding to be able to provide health services to people, he said.

“That’s our challenge always especially for us in rural and provincial Aotearoa for us in leadership positions here it’s always having to fight that fight and that argument to make sure that we are equitably funded so that our people don’t lose out.”

Māori health care providers were stepping up to provide culturally competent nurses to help with telehealth services, he said.

“It all contributes negatively to the overall wellbeing of someone if they’re unable to access our care or they’re too whakamā or shy to access our care if they don’t know the person. I mean kanohi ki te kanohi, you know that face to face relationship that someone requires with someone who’s going to be speaking with them about their own health is incredibly important for us.”

It was important to do everything possible to get more doctors and to ensure they were culturally competent, he said.

The fact that Dargaville Hospital did not have staff on overnight meant someone who lived in Te Hāpua or Te Kao would face an eight hour round trip just to get to the hospital, he said.

Tepania is reminding his constituents to not hold off getting care and risk making their health issues worse because of the staffing problems across Northland.

Te Whatu Ora Northern region hospital & specialist services director Mark Shepherd told Morning Report all adverse events were investigated.

“I can assure you patients aren’t dying because of waiting times…”

Shepherd said a loss of “a small number of doctors” compromised the roster.

He said Te Whatu Ora was doing a “range of significant things” to ensure patients remained safe.