Photo: Supplied / LDR
New Zealand is not training enough surgeons, while also facing significant attrition of the workforce, according to the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.
Workforce shortages are one of the key issues at the beleaguered Tōtara Haumaru building at North Shore Hospital.
The new 150-bed building has been sitting empty for months, and is now set to partially open in July, however, no additional surgeries will be carried out at the hospital.
That's because in order to staff the new building, other operating theatres will have to close; a "lift and shift" of resources from one building to the other.
The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons said while it applauded more physical infrastructure for surgery, these theatres needed to be staffed.
Its chairperson of the Aotearoa New Zealand National Committee Dr Ros Pochin told Midday Report there were significant shortages of senior medical officers (SMOs) and registrars.
Lack of surgeons a problem for hospitals
"One of the things we know is that we have significant attrition of surgeons overseas and that's partly because of conditions of working.
"But it's also because we train very good quality surgeons in New Zealand, but then we encourage them to go do an overseas fellowship. We currently don't have a system whereby we're giving them the promise of a job to come back to, so we're losing people overseas."
Pochin said that loss was compounded by retirement and not training enough new surgeons.
"Plastics is a perfect example of training; they're getting one or two new surgeons out a year that are staying in the country, but they're actually down 12 SMOs throughout the country, so the maths doesn't add up."
The new Tōtara Haumaru building was anticipated to have capacity for 15,000 procedures a year, and was supposed to help slash waiting lists in the Auckland region.
Pochin said that extra capacity would have provided the opportunity for more operations that go beyond just the most urgent and life-threatening, to those that improve a patient's quality of life.
"We want to provide a service where we cannot just treat cancer, but we can actually treat people who have gallstones, or varicose veins, and who are therefore finding they can't can't live their life."
Pochin said the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons was working with Health Minister Dr Shane Reti to address workforce and pipeline issues.
"But it is very frustrating... it feels a little bit like one step forward, two steps back."