Wellington, March 13 NZPA - Most rural hospitals are critically short of qualified medical staff, according to a survey of hospital managers.

Co-authored by Waikato Clinical School head Professor Ross Lawrenson, the survey of 29 rural hospitals asked managers to rate the availability of such staff, and while all said there were problems, most also said shortage levels were critical, The Press reported.

The survey suggested a third of positions at rural hospitals were vacant, a quarter of positions were covered by locums and 10 percent had no cover at all.

Prof Lawrenson said over half the doctors surveyed had recently worked additional shifts to cover for shortages and it was a fragile situation.

Another issue raised was the hospitals' heavy reliance on overseas-trained medical graduates, who tended to not stay for long.

"There are risks from having a large turnover of locums and international medical graduates in the quality of care that's being provided," Prof Lawrenson said.

Buller Hospital had reported having 170 GPs since 2001, which meant keeping track of them all was difficult and could affect patient safety.

Better training and pay, and a reduction in on-call demands were raised as ways to help solve the problems faced.

Schemes including training programmes and bonding initiatives introduced recently by the government were helping, Prof Lawrenson said.

Health Minister Tony Ryall said work on trying to address the "quite serious workforce crisis" was continuing, but a substantial funding increase was unlikely.

NZPA WGT co