Govt to give foreign doctors rural jobs

By Deborah Diaz

The Government hopes to solve doctor shortages in rural areas by recruiting overseas doctors whose qualifications the Medical Council has refused to recognise.

A $4.9 million package announced yesterday aims to give immigrant doctors training and registration in return for their accepting remote GP postings shunned by New Zealanders.

It comes a year after the Government admitted its immigration policy of the early to mid-1990s was flawed in giving residency to professionals who were then not allowed to work in their field.

Doctors were among the skilled immigrants trapped in low-paid jobs or on welfare, leading to ill health, despair and suicides.

There are not enough rural vacancies for them all, and some plan to refuse the jobs one Ukrainian specialist described as just another humiliation.

Dr Alex Grigoriev, an orthopaedic surgeon now studying art history because he has been unable to work after immigrating to Auckland in 1995, said he was not willing to start over as a GP.

"I will go anywhere where I am needed, to the West Coast or Invercargill - but as a surgeon, not a beginner.

"The Medical Council never invited us over or promised anything, but the Government did, and they should give us registration or pay compensation."

The Race Relations Conciliator, Dr Rajen Prasad, this year threatened an inquiry into how doctors from Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe were left in professional limbo at a high personal cost.

Health Minister Wyatt Creech said there were about 200 overseas doctors living here whose qualifications did not meet registration requirements.

"We have been very concerned that we've had gaps in areas such as rural practice and we've also had a pool of people who, with some training, could have the skills and competence to fill the jobs.

"We've got anecdotal reports of them driving taxis, or sitting on social welfare benefits. We do not want that to continue."

The package would help them to pass required exams and find jobs if they agreed they would be available to work where told.

The areas facing shortages of GPs are largely poor, rural or isolated - such as the West Coast, East Cape and King Country.

Mr Creech said the package had been developed with advice from the Overseas Doctors Association, the Medical Council and medical schools. The cost of the training programme for next year would be $4.9 million, with further funding committed for two more years.

The Overseas Doctors Association yesterday declined to comment on the package as it was seeking further details.

The Rural GPs Association welcomed anything that would put doctors where they were needed but warned against "bunging a doctor in to fill the hole."

The deputy chairman, Dr Howard Wilson, estimated there were about 30 vacancies in rural areas as the jobs were lower paid and sometimes involved being on call 24 hours a day with little backup.

"You can't force people into areas, because they won't stay. You'll find there is a rapid turnover."