diff --git a/src/compute-plane-services/nvca/pkg/nvca/queue_manager.go b/src/compute-plane-services/nvca/pkg/nvca/queue_manager.go
index fe1f39a9c..bfc7d970c 100644
--- a/src/compute-plane-services/nvca/pkg/nvca/queue_manager.go
+++ b/src/compute-plane-services/nvca/pkg/nvca/queue_manager.go
@@ -449,9 +449,10 @@ func (qm *QueueManager) SyncQueues(ctx context.Context) error {
 
 	// Hydrate the creation messages with the new request message IDs in matrics
 	// based on round-robin starting index.
-	creationMessagesByGPU, anyQueuePullError := createCreationMessageMatricesByGPU(
+	creationMessagesByGPU, hasCreationErrors := createCreationMessageMatricesByGPU(
 		log, qwInputs, qwOutputs, currQueueRingMetadata, existingMsgIDs,
 	)
+	anyQueuePullError = anyQueuePullError || hasCreationErrors
 
 	// Create worker pool to the number of termination messages plus the unique number of GPUs
 	// Termination requests can act in parallel while creation requests must be locked to a single GPU type per goroutine
diff --git a/src/compute-plane-services/nvca/pkg/nvca/queue_manager_test.go b/src/compute-plane-services/nvca/pkg/nvca/queue_manager_test.go
index b547c8665..9c88c160c 100644
--- a/src/compute-plane-services/nvca/pkg/nvca/queue_manager_test.go
+++ b/src/compute-plane-services/nvca/pkg/nvca/queue_manager_test.go
@@ -644,6 +644,47 @@ func TestSyncQueuesWithBk8s(t *testing.T) {
 	require.EventuallyWithT(t, verifyPodsDeleted, 120*time.Second, 100*time.Millisecond)
 }
 
+// TestSyncQueuesTerminationErrorNotMasked verifies that a termination queue
+// pull error keeps the manager status not OK, even when the creation queue
+// pull succeeds.
+func TestSyncQueuesTerminationErrorNotMasked(t *testing.T) {
+	ctx, cancel := context.WithCancel(newTestContext())
+	t.Cleanup(cancel)
+
+	clients := mockKubeClients()
+	b := NewBackendk8sCacheBuilder().
+		WithNamespaceLabels(labels.Set{"foo": "bar"}).
+		WithClients(clients).
+		WithStaticGPUCapacity(10)
+	bc, _, err := b.Start(ctx)
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+
+	// Use distinct queue URLs (mod=true) so the termination queue can fail
+	// independently of the creation queue.
+	queueCreds := getTestQueueCreds(true)
+	createQueue := queueCreds.CreationQueues[testGPUNameDefault]
+
+	qc := &mockqueue.Client{
+		Use10MillisForWaits: true,
+		FailReceiveQueueURL: queueCreds.TerminationQueue.QueueURL,
+		FailReceiveErr:      fmt.Errorf("simulated termination queue pull failure"),
+	}
+	qc.AddMessage(createQueue.QueueURL, queue.ReceiveMessageOutput{
+		MessageID:     creationMessageId,
+		ReceiptHandle: "randomIdTermFail",
+		Body:          []byte(goodCM),
+	})
+
+	bsc := newMockBackendStatusCacheFromK8s(t, bc)
+	metrics := nvcametrics.FromContext(ctx)
+	qm := NewQueueManager(bc, bsc, qc, queueCreds, featureflag.DefaultFetcher, types.MaintenanceModeNone, metrics)
+	assert.True(t, qm.StatusOK())
+
+	err = qm.SyncQueues(ctx)
+	assert.NoError(t, err)
+	assert.False(t, qm.StatusOK(), "status must not be OK when termination queue pull fails")
+}
+
 func TestSyncQueuesWithBk8sFailedCaching(t *testing.T) {
 	origUUID := GetUseUUIDForRequestObjName()
 	SetUseUUIDForRequestObjName(false)
diff --git a/src/compute-plane-services/nvca/pkg/queue/mock/mock.go b/src/compute-plane-services/nvca/pkg/queue/mock/mock.go
index e030997fe..ee708af91 100644
--- a/src/compute-plane-services/nvca/pkg/queue/mock/mock.go
+++ b/src/compute-plane-services/nvca/pkg/queue/mock/mock.go
@@ -38,6 +38,10 @@ type Client struct {
 	// Speed up tests using 10's of milliseconds instead of seconds.
 	Use10MillisForWaits bool
 
+	// If set, ReceiveMessage returns FailReceiveErr for FailReceiveQueueURL.
+	FailReceiveQueueURL string
+	FailReceiveErr      error
+
 	queues map[string][]QueueMessage
 	mu     sync.RWMutex
 }
@@ -107,6 +111,10 @@ done:
 func (c *Client) ReceiveMessage(ctx context.Context, input queue.ReceiveMessageInput) ([]queue.ReceiveMessageOutput, error) {
 	qi := input.QueueInfo
 
+	if c.FailReceiveErr != nil && qi.QueueURL == c.FailReceiveQueueURL {
+		return nil, c.FailReceiveErr
+	}
+
 	c.mu.Lock()
 	if c.queues == nil {
 		c.queues = map[string][]QueueMessage{}