Exodus of young doctors blamed on health boards

District health boards should be doing everything they can to halt an exodus of junior doctors, says the New Zealand Resident Doctors Association.

Instead, house officers (doctors in their first four years out of medical school) are heading overseas in increasing numbers, amid disputes with boards over pay and conditions.

About 2500 junior doctors held a five-day strike in August in protest at the breakdown of their contract talks, particularly issues relating to their long hours.

Association general secretary Deborah Powell said yesterday that the shortage of house officers had reached crisis point.

Junior doctors, who would be looking at new positions in November and December, were being put off by board attempts to change the way contracts were negotiated, she said.

"Quite a number of first-year house officers have declined positions and have indicated they are going to Australia."

Applications for second-year house officer jobs had fallen 38 per cent between 2002 and 2005, she said.

"DHBs need to urgently invest more money in recruitment and retention to encourage New Zealand-qualified residents to fulfil their training in New Zealand and remain practising as GPs and specialists."

Dr Powell said house officers were bypassing New Zealand hospitals in favour of better employment packages in Australia and internationally.

The DHBs lead negotiator Dr Nigel Murray described Dr Powell's comments as "irresponsible".

"There has been no change in the number of NZ graduates applying for jobs in our hospitals.

"The figures haven't been finalised yet, although reports suggest that only six doctors out of a graduating class of nearly 300 are looking elsewhere.

"It is mischievous to suggest that six additional doctors, who may or may not have chosen to go to Australia, are the cause for the shortage."

Dr Murray says the main reasons for the looming shortage include extra leave entitlements increasing a need for relievers and the fact fewer internationally-trained doctors were coming to New Zealand.

"The fact is migration works both ways - 41 per cent of our doctors are overseas trained and this year applications from overseas have dried up - particularly from the UK where most of our overseas trained doctors come from."

"This just reinforces why we need to find better ways of working together and resolving our differences," said Dr Murray.

"The shortage will only be overcome by well thought out and collaborative approaches to the underlying problems."

- NZPA