Urgent Action Needed To Retain Doctors

new-zealand-first-party

Fri Jul 20 2007 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

Urgent Action Needed To Retain Doctors

Friday, 20 July 2007, 12:06 am
Press Release: New Zealand First Party

Media Release

20 July 2007

The Medical Council’s call for new measures to help New Zealand retain the doctors it trains must not fall on deaf ears says New Zealand First health spokesperson Barbara Stewart.

“With a medical workforce already stretched almost to breaking point in some places the Council’s survey showing that up 25 percent of doctors locally trained leave within three years of graduation must be a wake up call to the Government.

“If the Council’s figures are correct and 80 New Zealand trained doctors are leaving every year, most of them to Australia for better wages and conditions, there is a message here that we can no longer afford to ignore.

“Neither can we continue to depend on overseas trained doctors, many of whom also leave after gaining registration.

“New Zealand First advocates reviewing the costs of gaining initial medical qualifications and exploring the option of a bonding system for medical students who are willing to trade off student loan abatements for staying here once they graduate.

“It is ridiculous that we train young doctors at great expense to the country and themselves and then wave them goodbye because we lack the initiative to do anything to retain them,” said Mrs Stewart.

ENDS

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