The Australian Medical Association in WA (AMAWA) has raised concerns of significant staffing shortages at Geraldton hospital's emergency department, following reports of an email hoping to bring in help from other parts of the state.
AMAWA president Mark Duncan-Smith said the WA Country Health Service (WACHS) CEO sent out the call for doctors from metropolitan areas to fill shifts, and pointed towards cultural issues around morale and engagement across the WACHS statewide.
"Unfortunately there've been staff shortages at Geraldton hospital for some time now," he said.
"Prior to the Christmas period, they were only sitting at about 60-70 per cent of normal complement.
With the emergency department's capacity reduced, Dr Duncan-Smith said patients would potentially experience a compromise in safety and quality of care.
Dr Duncan-Smith said staffing shortages were not limited to Geraldton but did appear worse in the Mid West town compared to other parts of the state for reasons he did not know.
WACHS did not confirm the shortage figures, but its CEO Jeff Moffet said it had to quickly call on staff to fill rosters in Geraldton.
"In Geraldton, we recently utilised these mechanisms to backfill our medical rosters."
With global workforce shortages occurring amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr Moffet said workers in regional areas were more exposed to staffing shortages.
"The fact is remote healthcare providers across Australia are more reliant on being able to import their workforce," he said.
"It's also hard to attract GPs to the regions which can increase pressure on regional hospitals."
Upper House Liberal MP and Member for the Agricultural Region, Steve Martin, said he was concerned the regional health system and Geraldton Health Campus would not be ready for COVID-19 once WA's borders reopen on February 5.
"What they need is to have that hospital staffed full all the time. They can't be relying on emergency emails from the head of WACHS saying we have a critical medical staff shortage," he said.
"We know that WACHS are doing their very best to fill their shortages, but the pressure is growing on the doctors and nurses that work in that system."
