Medical examinations for long-term visitors

2.15pm

All people coming to New Zealand for 12 months or longer will have to have a full medical examination.

The examination is part of a new immigration health and disability screening programme, announced today by Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel.

The programme will boost existing screening measures in an effort to improve public protection from highly contagious diseases.

It would also identify potential costs to the health system, Ms Dalziel said.

The programme has three main components:

* screening for conditions that pose a public health risk;

* benchmarks to identify "significant" costs or demands plus a list of conditions that are above the benchmarks;

* professional support systems to ensure Immigration Service (NZIS) medical advisers have access to speciality areas when assessing individual cases and for updates on disease and disability trends.

Rules that previously allowed almost all residence applicants to apply for a waiver to the health and disability requirements have also been tightened.

NZIS and the Health Ministry will begin phasing in the new screening requirements from March, Ms Dalziel said.

It was expected they would be fully implemented by the end of the year, she said.

"More people wanting to enter New Zealand will have to undergo tuberculosis (TB) screening, particularly if they are from or have recently lived in identified countries with a high incidence of TB," she said.

"This includes countries with more than 20 cases of TB per 100,000 of population and countries where the TB notification rate is likely to be inaccurately low due to poor diagnosis and notification."

At present only those planning to be in New Zealand for two or more years must be screened for TB, she said.

Under the changes, the screening requirements will apply from March to overseas students wanting to stay in New Zealand for more than six months.

From mid-2004 they will apply to visitors or workers intending to stay for longer than one year.

"By the end of 2004 it is intended to extend compulsory TB screening to all people wanting to enter New Zealand for six months or more, from high-risk countries."

The medical examination will test for a range of ill health and disability indicators.

It has been expanded to include screening for HIV, Hepatitis B and significant kidney disease.

It would also allow for an assessment of likely costs to special education.

The targets are understood to include people with illnesses that are expensive to treat, such as kidney disease, which needs dialysis, and tuberculosis.

Under current rules, people coming in have to declare whether they have a range of illnesses but they are not tested for most of them.

A review of the screening system that had been going on for more than a year "clearly" identified the need to improve public protection against highly contagious diseases.

"There were also issues related to people entering New Zealand while potentially needing treatment for such conditions as kidney failure or HIV/AIDS," Ms Dalziel said.

A flaw in the existing policy was that it did not identify disability, unless there were associated costs to the public health system.

- NZPA