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Seven senior executives resigned from the Canterbury District Health Board within just a few weeks. Top L-R: Support executive director Carolyn Gullery, chief digital officer Stella Ward, chief executive David Meates. Bottom L-R: Chief financial operator Justine White, Canterbury Medical Officer Sue Nightingale, nursing executive director Mary Gordon, people officer Michael Frampton. The resignations followed months of mounting tension between the senior staff and their health board, which was under increasing pressure from the Ministry of Health to reduce its forecast deficit of nearly $180 million. Board member James Gough said the board would interview the four outstanding short-listed candidates on Thursday.
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Meanwhile, seventy-one-year-old Lynne McLaughlin is ill with emphysema, a chronic inflammatory lung disease. But she won’t be able to see a GP at her medical centre in Wainuiomata, Lower Hutt, for more than two weeks, and will head to the emergency department if her condition worsens.
Ross Giblin/Stuff “It is just ridiculous,” she says. The difficulties the two women face point to a major general practitioner shortage across the country that was expected to worsen. On average, GPs are 53 years old and nearly half are due to retire over the next decade. But there aren’t enough doctors coming through to replace them, says Dr Bryan Betty, medical director of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RNZCGP).