There's a shortage of doctors across Canterbury

The DHB has approximately 40 vacancies for full time senior and resident medical officers.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Helen Skinner says an active recruitment programme is underway to fill the vacancies, including talent sourcing from overseas and multi-channel advertising.

This comes with Christchurch after-hours seeing increasing demand.

Pegasus Health's 24 Hour surgery has seen a 14 per cent rise in patients coming into the centre later in the evening compared to November last year.