Flatlining holidays: Waikato doctor accrues $310k in untaken leave

Saturday, 30 May 2026

High leave accruals in Waikato reflect a national shortage off health staff, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists says.

A Waikato doctor is owed more than $310,000 worth of outstanding leave amid a regional longlist totalling millions.

The number — enough to buy a small house — reflects 14 months’ of accrued leave and was the top figure on a list of the 20 highest leave balances owed to senior doctors and registered nurses in Waikato.

The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists says the issue reflects a nationwide struggle for staff to take leave because of chronic understaffing across many hospital services.

Understaffing in hospitals made it difficult for doctors to take leave, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists says.

However, Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora says it encourages employees — particularly those with large leave balances — to take time off, while hospitals are expected to manage leave in a way that does not affect service delivery.

Association executive director Sarah Dalton said staff were shouldering burdens the health system should be addressing.

She rebuffed the idea the high leave balances could be a choice by the doctors who made the list.

“It is absolutely not choice. For our members there is a direct correlation, we think, between the Health New Zealand's failure to properly staff services, and our members' inability to access all the leave they would like to take, and all the leave they're entitled to take, in a timely fashion.”

Senior doctors find they can’t take the leave they’d like ‘in a timely fashion’, Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Sarah Dalton says.

Understaffing in hospitals made it difficult for doctors to take leave, as they felt their colleagues were relying on them and knew work would pile up in their absence.

Workers were entitled to a minimum of two weeks' unbroken leave every year, she said, yet they were used to making do with “just a few days here and there”.

“We have hospital specialists not applying for leave because they know it's probably going to get declined or they think it will put too much pressure on the service for them to be away for that length of time.”

The chart-topping doctor’s 60.4 weeks of leave owing equalled a decade’s worth of a senior medical officer’s six-week annual entitlement, she said.

While the figure was an outlier, there were “a handful of services” at Waikato Hospital where this was entirely possible, she said.

In such situations, burnout became a risk.

“The other problem is that in some of those really understaffed services, they struggle to retain staff, and there’s a high turnover.”

She hoped the recent change in Health NZ’s board leadership would bring a change in how the organisation dealt with its workforce and she would love to see a push to boost the number of doctors.

The list of leave balances, released under the Official Information Act, showed that for Senior Medical Officers in Waikato, the highest leave balance was 60.4 weeks, a figure valued at $310,144.

The request for information was initially rejected by HNZ, but a response was provided after the Waikato Times appealed to the Ombudsman.

The next highest balances were 50.6 weeks, valued at $259,847, and 47.1 weeks, worth $241,989.

Of the remaining 17 doctors on the top 20 list, leave balances ranged between 34.7 weeks, worth $178,092, and 24.3 weeks, equivalent to $73,251.

The data also shed light on the 20 highest leave balances for registered nurses in the Waikato region.

‘If they had enough staff employed, this wouldn’t be such an issue,’ says New Zealand Nurses Organisation Waikato-based delegateTracy Chisholm.

One nurse was owed a chart-topping 36.8 weeks, valued at $97,332.

Two other nurses had also surpassed the 30-week milestone, with one entitled to $64,942 worth of leave for a 31.7-week balance, and the other owed $68,150 for 30.6 weeks.

Six others within the top 20 had leave balances within the 20–29 week range, while the rest ranged between 18–19 weeks.

The New Zealand Nurses Organisation also pointed to staffing struggles when quizzed on leave balances.

Waikato-based delegate Tracy Chisholm said nurses were entitled to between four and six weeks’ leave, depending on how long they had been working.

However, securing this could be difficult, particularly for longer periods, such as when international staff wanted to travel overseas.

“It boils down to, if they had enough staff employed, this wouldn’t be such an issue,” she said.

One factor causing problems was the “huge delay” in recruitment. A nurse could hand in their four weeks’ notice, but by the time they left, management may not even have begun advertising for a replacement.

However, she believed the situation was improving and noted some staff simply did not want to take leave.

Health NZ Waikato district group director of operations Stephanie Doe said in a statement it was not always possible to approve leave for certain dates, but they worked with staff to find mutually agreed periods of leave.

Questions about why the organisation did not have a policy preventing a large build up of leave went unanswered.

An initial statement provided with the data said that doctors were entitled to more leave than most other occupations. This included not only six weeks of annual leave, but also other leave types such as education and long service leave.

Leave balances for SMOs could vary widely, the response said.

“Staff are encouraged to take the leave they are entitled to and we actively work with staff who hold high leave balances to take the leave owing to them.”

HNZ had raised the issue of high leave balances with regional hospitals, which were working to manage this, the response said.

“Hospitals and regions are expected to manage their staff’s leave entitlements to ensure service provision is not adversely impacted.“