Campaign pledges for doctor training

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

Opinion

Strikes by senior doctors and dentists who work at public hospitals, as the election approaches, are an embarrassment for the Government but also underline serious flaws in the country’s medical system.

The senior doctors point to some desperate situations, with specialists burned out and struggling to see patients on time. One was quoted as saying people he had been supposed to see as new patients, had died before he was scheduled to see them.

Some say the next Government has some stark choices to make.

If it did not invest more significantly in health, they would have to make hard decisions about what treatments they would be able to offer people.

Cancer treatment was vital but it was also important to extend people’s lives and give children things like grommet surgery to improve their lives.

The Government’s response on the campaign trail this week has been to announce that it will boost medical training places by 95 a year from 2025 and 335 by 2027 (on top of the 50 extra places announced in June), while health spokesperson Dr Ayesha Verrall said Labour would also create an extra 700 nursing places in 2024.

The general reaction from medical organisations is that this is welcome but not enough.

The NZ Resident Doctors’ Association, which represents junior doctors, said it had lobbied hard for at least three years and had “always said 300, maybe 350” extra medical school places were needed.

NZ Nurses Organisation president Anne Daniels said the 700 extra nurses would not fix the problem quickly enough. At least 4000 more nurses were needed “right now”.

College of Midwives chief executive Alison Eddy said midwifery faced the greatest challenges with an estimated 40 percent staffing gap.

The strikes by senior doctors come as they are being offered twice their present salaries to move to Australia. Australian recruiters are contacting specialists with “cold calls” trying to get them to move.

The estimated cost of Labour’s plan to increase doctor training places is

$1 billion over the next 10 years.

National has promised to set up a third medical school at Waikato University and add 50 extra training places at both the Otago and Auckland medical schools, as well as the 50 announced earlier by Labour. That would see an extra 220 doctors graduating each year by 2030.

Both parties are claiming the other’s plans are unfeasible.

The senior doctors’ union and Te Whatu Ora are due to go back for mediated talks next Monday. If they cannot reach agreement a further four-hour strike is planned for next Thursday, with the possibility of more action in October.