New Zealand doctor shortage to increase as Australia fights to attract from NZ shores
The current shortage of physicians in New Zealand is expected to worsen following Australia’s announcement of plans to make it easier for New Zealand doctors to work wherever they like within the country, upon migrating.
Across New Zealand, in both rural areas and major cities, GPs, resident doctors and specialist positions are all going vacant. In fact, over 225 of Auckland’s 900 hospital-based resident doctor positions remained vacant in 2009 alone.
Come April 2010, as current restrictions are lifted, it is expected that a number of New Zealand doctors will cross the Tasman in search of new opportunities and the potentially higher salaries offered in Australia, as compared to New Zealand.
"It's a threat to the whole medical profession in New Zealand," said Jeff Brown, president of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, as quoted by the New Zealand Herald. "We would have major anxieties at the very time when we are trying to address our own workforce crisis, to suddenly have our near neighbours suck us dry potentially."
The new Australian law will allow New Zealand citizens and permanent resident doctors who gained a minimum of their first medical degree from a New Zealand or Australian university to bypass restrictions disallowing them from offering non-hospital healthcare funded by Medicare, provided they are willing to work in Australia’s rural areas experiencing a shortage of GPs, physicians and specialists. Current law dictates that these doctors would need to be medically registered in Australia for 10 years before reaching such eligibility.
Current programmes in New Zealand designed to attract resident doctors, specialists and medical students to rural areas are not expected to be able to compete with the new Australian plan, especially in terms of potential financial remuneration.
Resident Doctors Association secretary Deborah Powell told the New Zealand Herald that the Australian changes “would give her members greater choices, but would deepen New Zealand's workforce crisis”.
The good news, perhaps, is that the shortage will no doubt open up even more available positions for doctors looking to migrate to New Zealand from overseas, especially those willing to practice outside of the main urban centres.
If you’re a doctor in the UK or Ireland, visit the next Health Jobs Around the World Expo to start your journey to New Zealand in 2010.
