Boosting supply of health professionals

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

National looks to have stolen a march on Labour with its announcement yesterday that it would fund a third medical school at Waikato University.

Either coincidently or by intent, the move came a day after Labour announced its plan to overcome the serious and growing shortage of medical staff.

Leader Christopher Luxon said the capital cost to set up the Waikato medical school would be about $380 million, with up to $280m coming from the Crown and Waikato University paying the rest.

Luxon used the announcement to launch an attack on what he sees as a major weakness for Labour.

Sick and injured New Zealanders were waiting hours in emergency departments, weeks to see a GP, and spending months on surgical waiting lists, he said. There had been calls for extra doctors even before the arrival of Covid-19, which depleted the opportunities to employ staff from overseas even further.

Luxon said the health sector was in a workforce crisis and the new medical school should have been started five years ago, as the previous National government had planned.

National committed to a plan by Waikato University and what was then the Waikato District Health Board to establish the country’s third medical school, but it was cancelled by the first-term Labour government in 2018.

Luxon also said the existing Auckland and Otago medical schools would get 50 more training places from 2025, on top of an extra 50 already funded in the 2023 Budget.

It was a step up on — and needed in addition to — the announcement by Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall the previous day of Labour’s plan to make studying and working in the health system more appealing, and to attract internationally trained clinicians.

Other initiatives were to grow earn-as-you-learn programmes, expand existing rural and interdisciplinary programmes, grow pathways for Māori and Pacific communities in health, and create 135 new training places a year for health-allied professionals including paramedics, oral health therapists and radiation therapists.

Verrall revealed that the health system was short of more than 8000 medical professionals and, based on population growth, an extra 1600 would be needed per year out to 2032.

The 8000 vacancies in the health system now includes 4800 nurses, 1700 doctors and 1050 midwives.

For too long New Zealand has been relying on health professionals trained (expensively) by other countries, often developing countries, to reinforce our health system. That not only carries its own risks, it is morally questionable. We need to train a lot more health professionals ourselves.