After finally succumbing to the winter chills yesterday, I got to thinking about the New Zealand health system.
All across the country, communities are facing escalating GP shortages.With an aging population, a reluctance of GP’s to relocate to rural areas and increasing migrant communities, action is required on this issue – and a solution lies right under our noses.
There are a vast number of migrant doctors in New Zealand who cannot practice here due to various reasons.
It is important at this time, when our health professionals are stretched thinly across the nation, that we make use of this wonderful resource.
The North Shore Chinese Community recognised this in 2006 and organised a panel discussion on the issue.
The conclusion reached was that many illnesses can be prevented or cured by way of a proper and early diagnosis. One solution touted was a ‘diagnosis detection centre’.
This would be the ideal platform for migrant doctors (doctors who are yet to be qualified in New Zealand) to assist in providing diagnosis services.
That way they can ease the pressure on GP’s and hospitals while also gaining an insight and transition into the New Zealand health system.
This could form part of a ‘bridging’ programme, which will enable these migrant doctors to eventually practice in New Zealand.
Annual ‘diagnosis detection’ checkups are common in China, Japan and South Korea, where they save the health system millions of dollars, and hundreds of lives, through early detection and cure of many illnesses.
Another cost-effective way is for Tertiary Institutes to offer programmes for migrant doctors to hone their English and medical skills. These programmes would prepare the doctors to qualify and practice in New Zealand.
Creating a pathway for migrant doctors to practice in New Zealand will not only ease the dire doctor shortage, but will also satisfy the medical needs of our migrant communities.
Great idea! I’ve been thinking about this recently actually and the number of times of got into a cab and talked to the migrant driver who says he is a doctor, but isn’t allowed to practice here.
What about government funding to bring already trained doctors into the NZ health system? A free course for migrant doctors to learn the NZ system. Or even one with minimal fees. The biggest problem after moving to a new country, I guess, is the actual finance and as it costs money to become trained – particularly if you come from a developing country – this could be quite an impossible burden.
Maybe we should also invest more money into delving deeper into foreign universities’ medical schools to make sure that, if they are on a par with us, their doctors that come to NZ can actually practice here with less training.
We should start trying to attract doctors from other nations deliberately, particularly from the developing world. There is a great resource there any many people would want to come and live in NZ – particularly if we gave them more medical training at a low cost (or for free).
I’m glad to hear that this is finally being taken seriously. It is outrageous that we have highly skilled people un(der)employed because they simply happen to have grown up outside New Zealand’s borders.
Maybe we should also invest more money into delving deeper into foreign universities’ medical schools to make sure that, if they are on a par with us, their doctors that come to NZ can actually practice here with less training.
Absolutely. The racism implied in the idea that other countries medical teaching is less valuable than our own is outstanding. Yes, there are issues with differences in culture and practice, but these can be resolved by refreshing the immigrant with a 6 month+ intensive course, rather than retraining them completely.
I agree…this is a brilliant idea. The win-win pathway/bridging program not only can ease the burden in NZ health system, on the other hand will ease migrant doctors’ fear of merging into this host country. I am thinking a Diagnose Center in cooperation with the current Health-line, providing 24hrs telephone/internet service, will be wonderful for NZers.
Firstly great…about time and yadda yadda.
Secondly, didn’t you get a sniffle in the last nine years? Most of these qualified doctors, who have experienced medically far more than any of the NZ trained doctors came to NZ on a points based Labour Party immigration policy – you know because that had qualifications that could benefit NZ. When they got here they were told, sorry your not good enough. Sorry this topic irks me as I listened a husband of a NZ born Chinese doctor go on about how foreign doctors lacked the communication or interpersonal skills to talk to NZ patients. That doctor probably studied from the the text books written by these foreign doctors.
@ Andy B “Great idea! I’ve been thinking about this recently actually and the number of times of got into a cab and talked to the migrant driver who says he is a doctor, but isn’t allowed to practice here.”
Seriously makes me wonder how they got their rights to come and live in NZ!!
Im sure taxi driver isn’t on the skilled migrant list.
If they dont have the qualifications they should not be allowed to enter NZ in the first place.
I believe that a program like you have mentioned is a good idea – but o/seas docs need to sign up for it before arriving in NZ and commit to working x period in the public domain (as opposed to private clinics etc) in return for their training.
Great idea Raymond, why’ll we shouldn’t open the flood gates for migrant doctors to work in New Zealand, we should definitely be encouraging them to come here.
It will be very very interesting to see what eventuates from secret smile Tony Ryall’s reforms to the health sector. I have the feeling that things won’t be made easier for skilled doctors to come to our shores.
While there ought to be an emphasis on training and retaining Kiwi health professionals, there has been a tendency in the past for them to move on overseas to better paid jobs. So the gap left needs to be filled by someone.
On another note, Biker Kiwi I don’t often if ever agree with your views on this blog site, and still think you have an inherently anti-migrant perspective. But I concur with your last paragraph.
@James99 – Funny the perceptions people get.
I am 100% FOR migrants. In fact I married one.
What I believe however is that we have a awesome country and we need to ensure that the migrants we attract are GOOD migrants who can merge with Kiwi society and offer a nett benefit to the country – a win / win for both NZ and the migrant.
What I dont want to see is poor quality migrants come into NZ that dont fit with the country (and dont want to), that actually dont like NZ, that cost the tax payer money etc etc etc.
The UK has this and it has ruined it as a country. (thats a popular reason given by UK migrants).
We have one of the best countries in the world and we have the ability to attract top migrants from all over the world – bring them in and NZ will be a better place.
see – you didnt expect that did ya !
The Centre for Asian and Migrant Health Research at AUT hosted a key stakeholder consultation forum on 27 May 2008 to discuss a possible integrated service delivery model for refugee and immigrant health professionals seeking New Zealand registration. The forum involved dialogue between agencies such as the Medical Council, Tertiary Education Commission, Ministry of Health, Department of Labour, District Health Boards, Non Governmental Organisations such as the Auckland Regional Migrant Services Trust, and Professor Lesleyanne Hawthorne, the Associate Dean International and Director: Faculty International Unit Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne. Professor Hawthorne has researched global skill migration in relation to health workforce migration for the past 15 years, in particular policy, accreditation and labour market integration issues. Most recently she has been appointed by the OECD to conduct research related to high skill migration across member nations (2007-08), with separate projects analysing the mobility of temporary versus permanent professionals; new strategies for the global portability of qualifications (including for medical and nursing migrants); and international student participation in high skill migration. A European perspective was provided by video link by Ceri Butler from the Department of Primary Care and Population Science, University College London, a key proponent of multi-stakeholder approaches. The forum followed research undertaken by AUT University staff member Charles Mpofu on occupational transition issues of immigrant health practitioners from non-English speaking backgrounds (NESB) which was prompted by media stories about immigrant doctors being under-employed in low skilled work in New Zealand while shortages in the medical workforce were also being reported.
This project was developed by Charles with the goal of generating knowledge and expanding the understanding of structural barriers in the employment of NESB immigrant health practitioners in New Zealand. The purpose of his project was to achieve a greater understanding of how NESB immigrant medical practitioners in New Zealand experience and manage hardships in attempting to meet recognition and registration requirements. It was anticipated that the published findings of the study might contribute to improvements in various policies involved and to achieve greater awareness of the difficulties faced by such immigrants. Internationally, in countries with health systems comparable to New Zealand the issue of NESB immigrant health practitioners being under-employed in non-career grades has been researched and tackled by NESB representative groups, labour and health ministries, regulatory boards and local health service employing authorities. In most of these countries especially Canada, the USA, the UK and Australia, governments and local health authorities have acknowledged that initiatives aimed at enabling immigrant health practitioners to meet registration requirements have implications not only for settlement outcomes but for diverse workforce development and meeting workforce shortages.
The Centre for Asian and Migrant Health Research then hosted a follow up workshop at the Diversity Forum in August 2008 involving District Health Board (DHB), educator and research perspectives. The first half of the workshop focused on initiatives from the three Auckland DHBs to capitalise on overseas registered health professionals and featured educator and researcher perspectives. The second half involved discussion groups to make recommendations to advance the agenda of capitalising on a diverse health workforce.
All the presentations are available to view online at:
http://www.aut.ac.nz/research/research-institutes/niphmhr/centre-for-asian-and-migrant-health-research/health-practitionersa-forum
Regards, Ruth
Singaporean trained doctors are great. Other migrant doctors are not up to our standards. Others come from countries where women are chattels. No amount of training is ever going to fix these perverse attitudes.
Indiana you are wrong , it was National who had the points for paper qualifications, but didnt check if those qualifications are equivalent to the NZ ones.
As for the racsim charge that is silly as its a fact of life that say ordinary russian qualified doctors are more like advanced paramedics.
My point was that Labour had 9 years to get these migrant doctors with qualifications obtained from highly regarded medical schools but for some reason unrecognised by the NZ Medical council as an equivalent qualification. Labour also had the ability to better check these migrant entries, because I know of many taxi driver/doctors that have arrived into NZ in the last 2-5 years.
If you have picked up racial overtones in my comments, thats a pity because I that was not intended.
@ indiana – so what you are saying is that yet again labour is saying why dont the government do something about “X” when they didn’t do anything themselves when in power?
I’m spotting a trend here.
last I checked The Medical Council wasn’t some board appointed on the whim of the Minister. The same would go for the Pharmacists and engineers.
And I think you will find that the doctors driving taxis is a thing of the 90s, unless the doctors have come recently as refugees
This from a search of the Herald.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10513568
From 2002 to 2004, the Government provided the bridging programme for 328 doctors, at a cost of around $60,000 each excluding GST.
They had been encouraged to come to New Zealand in the 1990s without being adequately informed they must pass the licensing exam in order to practise medicine.
The ministry says the programme was of limited value. Only a quarter of those who applied to do it were qualified to take part and their pass rate of the licensing exam, 64 per cent, was little different from immigrant doctors outside the programme.
So there was a pro gramme under Labour, but it wasnt too sucessfull
I’d like to see improvements in working conditions that might keep my two kids working in NZ on permanent basis- and other youngsters I’ve taught who went on to medicine, too.The issue of immigrant professionals ‘lost outside the system’ is a humanitarian one, but the responses seeing them as a work force solution to NZ shortages are ones that rather miss the point in my opinion.
My niece now a consultant completed a study recently which suggested an international bidding war for highly trained staff is underway and will accelerate with international aging trends as asian economies recover.
Therefore it would seem we need to find ways to encourage our own graduates to return home and stay here.
Of my kids,one’s now a consultant in Aust the other long term locuming in NZ for better pay & hours. Both acknowledge the extra pressure on systems everywhere to hold high calibre staff. Both have had supervisory experience with ‘provisionally appointed’ immigrant professsionals here and in Aust. Both found the double duty involved a workload increase of about 20% in hours worked, in order that work/procedures requested of these doctors could be checked as having been appropriately administered and recorded. Both have had seriously negative issues with incompetency of training, practice, and attitude in some doctors they have supervised.
I do not wish to express opinions which are anti-immigrant but thier experiences make me prefer NZ trained doctors, and to express the need for very robust systems of accreditation for staff coming from elsewhere.
At the same time the miserable 4% of GDP we spend on health is seen as a cap. The Brits spend about 8% and we need to get our figure between 5-6% just to maintain the current services and pay the current people enough to keep them here.
Ryall and English seem to think a freeze on pay will be acceptable. Its too stupid for words
@ ghost who walks “Ryall and English seem to think a freeze on pay will be acceptable. Its too stupid for words”
The problem is that we have to pay for it. thanks to labour the coffers are dry.
We cannot keep spending / borrowing – we have to get out of this financial mess.
We all want perfect healthcare (really) and we all would like more money spent on it (really), but there has to be money there to do so – along with all the other things that has to be done to keep the country running.
you cannot look at the cap on spending in isolation (esp on such an emotive subject) – but as part of a whole.
bikerkiwi – why did English say our situation was so good in the December Economic Update. We are very very lucky Cullen didn’t take his advice over nine years and spend the surplus.
I tend to agree with theresaj, not all migrant doctors have been well trained to meet NZ standards, We should take it cautiously.
@Blahblah, I can change the line into ‘not all New Zealand trained doctors have been well trained enough to meet NZ standards’– according to some experience from my friends&neighbours. Put it in this light– that it’d be harder for a small country like NZ to provide as lot as possible case studies/practices– which can implie experiences– for NZ-trained doctors compare to other bigger countries such as India or China and etc. Shouldn’t we be cautious about this?