Figures provided to the Otago Daily Times under the Official Information Act show a spike in the number of clinical staff leaving Dunedin Hospital — especially nurses, who last year left in more than double the numbers of 2018.
The New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) said nurses were "tired of waiting" for conditions to improve.
The figures provided to the Otago Daily Times by Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand (HNZ) show clinical staff numbers at Dunedin Hospital are the lowest they have been since 2020.
There are currently 2741 clinical staff, whereas last year the number was 3004, and in 2021 it was 2895.
This pattern is also true of nurses, who currently number 1668 at the hospital, down from 1836 last year and 1797 in 2021.
Clinical staff were leaving at higher rates than previously, the figures showed.
Last year 428 left their roles at Dunedin Hospital, up from 402 the year before.
By contrast, between 2018 and 2020 the number of clinical staff leaving was less than 300 each year.
The number of nurses leaving their jobs at the hospital each year more than doubled between 2018 and 2022, from 111 to 242.
This is a slight decrease on the 2021 figure of 245.
NZNO president Anne Daniels said the figures for Dunedin reflected a national problem that was the result of years of neglect by successive governments.
"There’s a lot of things that can be done, but are not being done," she said.
The profession had an ageing workforce who were more likely to leave, especially due to the physical nature of the role.
Many nurses were also eyeing Australia as a better place to work, with higher pay.
More needed to be done to train nurses in New Zealand to boost workforce numbers, in addition to a focus on retaining staff, she said.
The issue of high staff turnover was raised in the now-defunct Southern District Health Board’s 2021-22 annual review before Parliament’s health select committee last week.
For that year — the most recent for which data was provided — turnover was 13.8%, up from 10.5% the year before and the highest rate in the five years for which data was provided.
National health spokesman Dr Shane Reti asked the SDHB panel to explain the increased figure.
HNZS chief financial officer Nigel Trainor attributed this to the Covid-19 pandemic and people moving either to another DHB, or overseas.
"While it is the highest, it is in an environment that is quite unique," he said.
HNZ chief executive Margie Apa said another factor that year was vaccine mandates, which affected staffing nationally.
The 2022 Future Intentions of Senior Doctors and Dentists survey report, recently released by ASMS, showed a "significant drop" in job satisfaction since the last survey in 2017, in which 81% of participants were satisfied.
Last year, the number fell to 57%
Pay, recognition of good work and physical working conditions were the aspects with which people were least satisfied.
The report also showed 62% were likely to remain in their current job over the next 5 years, down from 83% in 2017.
In 2017, just 4.2% of participants planned to move overseas to work, but the figure had jumped to 23.6%, with Australia the most common choice.
Several solutions were recommended in the report to improve conditions, including raising the numbers of doctors graduating from medical schools to 600
"The ... survey holds a mirror to a health system that is held together by an overstretched, under-resourced and short-staffed health workforce," it said.
Responding to the Otago Daily Times yesterday, HNZS hospital and specialist services interim lead Hamish Brown said the country was experiencing "significant workforce pressures" across the health system.
All efforts were being made to build a sustainable health workforce, he said.
"The Te Whatu Ora workforce task force is prioritising a national work programme that addresses barriers to addressing staffing shortfalls."
