A survey conducted by the Ministry of Health and Medical Services for nurses in Lautoka and Labasa indicated that majority of them preferred the 12-hour shifts because it came with more continuous days off.
Health Ministry permanent secretary Dr James Fong made the comment while responding to claims by National Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad and said the exodus of medical staff was a global issue and not specific to Fiji.
Prof Prasad said 25 nurses resigned in the past two months and in the first six months this year, 50 doctors, most of them young, have applied to the Fiji College of General Practitioners to enter general practice when normally in a year it averages five to six doctors only.
He said one of the reasons this happened was that nurses and doctors were rostered to work for 12 hours per shift instead of the normal eight hours.
However, Dr Fong said otherwise.
He said there were staff shortages that entailed some health workers to stay longer hours at work.
“I am glad that we have the overtime pay and the time off in lieu conditions that help to mitigate this,” he said.
Dr Fong also clarified that there were eight operating theatres working in CWM at present and the reason there were a lot of emergency surgeries was because of the backlog.
“The backlog in normative services is related to the prolonged closure of normative functions.
“I know that the clinicians have been tracking those in the backlog list for surgeries, however, I understand that in some cases our communication intentions have been less than ideal.
“The clinicians are working on continuing to improve in this area. Much as we would like to believe the pandemic effects are over, the only thing we have mitigated is the acute illness effects.”
On the issue of exodus of doctors and nurses, Dr Fong said Australia, New Zealand, USA and many of the developed countries have reported shortages relating to the exodus of medical staff.
“The key factor is underlying or imminent burnout.
“As such, many medical staff throughout the world will move to what they perceive to be greener pastures and/or less stressful work conditions.
“One particular survey in the USA, released by Elsevier Health, predicts that up to 75 per cent of healthcare workers will be leaving the healthcare profession by 2025.
“The same study discusses factors related to burnout such as work-life balance and finding it too stressful to deal with families.
“This exodus in developed countries means that many of our health care workers are finding vacancies overseas that allow them new experiences and the Ministry of Health and Medical Services together with our minister will always wish them well in their endeavours.”
Dr Fong also said doctors’ moving into private practice was a good thing for the ministry.
