A group representing GPs has issued a bleak assessment of the state of primary care in New Zealand. Video | Corey Fleming | Ben Dickens
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has changed his position after saying 100 Uber-driving overseas doctors want to work as GPs.
Health New Zealand is seeking interest from overseas doctors to boost the local primary care workforce.
Christchurch GP Angus Chambers criticised Luxon‘s comments, highlighting underfunding and retention as the key issues facing general practice.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has changed his position after claiming 100 Uber drivers who are overseas-trained doctors have registered their interest to work as general practitioners (GPs) in New Zealand.
After being asked by the Herald to provide the evidence he relied on to publicly state that 100 Uber drivers who were doctors wanted to work as GPs, he changed his position saying “some” doctors were driving taxis.
Christchurch GP Angus Chambers, chair of the General Practitioners Owners’ Association, told the Herald Luxon‘s comments were “unhelpful” and “concerning”.
During an interview about new funding for urgent care services on Monday, Luxon highlighted the policies the Government had in place to strengthen the GP workforce.
“We have got 100 overseas trained doctors that are driving Ubers today that are getting their registrations registered in NZ,” he told RNZ.
Health NZ is currently seeking expressions of interest from overseas doctors for a policy change to make registering in NZ easier.
After receiving questions from the Herald, a spokeswoman for Luxon said “well in excess of 100″ overseas-trained doctors are in NZ doing work unrelated to their profession and “some” are driving cabs.
It distracts from the real issue which is underfunding of general practice
The Herald asked exactly how many foreign doctors driving Ubers had expressed interest, but Luxon‘s office is yet to respond.
Chambers thought Luxon had been “poorly advised” on the issue saying the core problem is years of underinvestment in general practice by consecutive governments.
“It distracts us from the real issue of underfunding of general practice,” he said.
GPs have long argued the Government’s subsidising method is outdated – a concern backed up by several government reports, including the Sapere Report, commissioned by the last Labour Government.
As part of several measures announced in March, Health Minister Simeon Brown said he was “taking action” to boost GP numbers by creating 100 clinical placements for overseas-trained doctors to work in primary care.
The plan was met with scepticism by GPs - many of whom are burnt out, fully booked with patients and worried about finding time to supervise staff who don‘t have experience working in general practice.
Angus Chambers is a specialist GP based in Christchurch and Chair of the General Practice Owners Association (GenPro). Photo / George Heard
Chambers told the Herald not all overseas doctors in NZ will have the appropriate training to work as a GP, and many won‘t have any experience as a specialist general practitioner.
“Some will be ear, nose and throat doctors, gynaecologists - the whole gamut.”
He said while some jurisdictions like the United Kingdom had similar training to requirements in New Zealand, that wasn‘t the case for all countries.
He described the plan to supervise the training of 100 overseas-trained doctors in local practices as a policy that “sounds good” publicly but would take a lot of work at a time when GPs are under increasing pressure.
“It’s certainly no magic pipeline that will see 100 GPs tomorrow seeing complex general practice patients,” he said.
Chambers said retention was a key part of the issue with many newly trained GPs leaving for work overseas.
“Even if we do register these [overseas] doctors, there’s no guarantee they will stay because the policies [for GPs in NZ] are anti-retention.”
Michael Morrah is a senior investigative reporter/team leader at the Herald. He won News Journalist of the Year at the 2025 Voyager Media Awards and has twice been named reporter of the year at the NZ Television Awards. He has been a broadcast journalist for 20 years and joined the Herald‘s video team in July 2024.
