Senior doctors at Palmerston North Hospital say they need 41 extra doctors to deal with their workload.

Senior doctors at Palmerston North Hospital say they are burnt out and can't spend enough time with patients, because of chronic understaffing.

The hospital's top staff say they are short by 41 positions, including 10 in the emergency department, which is contributing to shockingly high burnout levels among doctors.

A survey of clinical heads of department at MidCentral DHB returned alarming results – nearly half said their staff had inadequate time to spend with patients and families to provide good quality patient care.

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Hospital management say they are taking the issue seriously and are aware of the risk of burnout.

Of the hospital's 32 department heads, 28 responded to the survey, conducted by the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists.

Association executive director Ian Powell said nationally, 50 per cent of specialist doctors reported suffering burnout and were an increased risk to patients.

"That is not heartening for patients to know that there is a 50 per cent chance that the surgeon operating on them or the paediatrician treating their child, is burnt out."

Powell said the health system was coming under major pressure due to a growing and aging population.

"What we can see increasingly clearly is that senior doctors are working shorthanded and as a result are under a lot of pressure to do more with less.

"This is not a sustainable situation for them and obviously not satisfactory for the many patients who struggle to see a specialist when they need to."

Powell said hospitals could not simply stop people coming through the door, but, meanwhile, there was a time lag between identifying the need and filling the position.

"It does take time. Specialists don't grow on trees. It's not like you can go to the supermarket and get one."

MidCentral chief medical officer Dr Kenneth Clark said the hospital was taking the issue "very seriously".

"We would be very foolish to ignore 87.5 per cent of our senior leaders."

However, Clark said there were "economic realities".

"There is absolutely no doubt in some areas we would love to employ more staff."

But the DHB had to weigh up what they spent money on, taking into account staff, equipment and buildings.

"You are always trying to juggle those things to get the best possible outcome for the patients.

"Senior doctors are incredibly important in that and we need enough of them and we need to look after them."

Clark said he was "particularly concerned" with the effects of burnout.

"The risk of burnout is considerable. It is incumbent on people like me to always be looking forward."

Clark said he was "constantly assessing the staffing levels".

Labour health spokeswoman Annette King said the issue could not be brushed aside.

"To have that level of stress and burnout is worrying."

King said patient and staff safety was in jeopardy, and something needed to be done.

"It does not require, 'we will look at it'. It requires action."

King said the complaints were symptomatic of underfunding in healthcare across the entire country.

The survey of heads of departments at MidCentral was carried out in May as part of a broader research project to understand staffing levels at selected district health boards.