Doctors' closed shop upsets MPs

The Medical Council is too restrictive in registering overseas doctors, say two parliamentary reports released yesterday.

MPs sitting on the health committee were highly critical of how doctors holding foreign qualifications are being barred from practising in New Zealand.

The MPs said they were "concerned" about restrictive practices.

"In this global health market New Zealand cannot afford to restrict the ability of skilled clinicians to work here.

"We have no desire to lower standards of practice, but believe the system must be flexible enough to allow the New Zealand public access to the services of highly skilled and competent overseas medical practitioners."

The committee said changes to the Medical Practitioners Act in 1995 had "not been implemented in the way that was anticipated".

The law change was intended to make it easier for the council to grant registration to overseas doctors by allowing it to approve some institutions' qualifications.

However, not one institution outside New Zealand or Australia had been approved in five years.

The processing of applications was "slow, bureaucratic, cumbersome, expensive and in need of streamlining".

About 1200 overseas-trained doctors came to New Zealand between 1991 and 1995. Their qualifications were accepted by immigration officials, but rejected by those who approve medical registrations.

Overseas specialists complained to the committee that they had to pass irrelevant tests.

One doctor said he had been told by the College of General Practitioners that his competence, skills and experience did not count as the college had no knowledge about his Swiss qualifications.

The same doctor complained that the Medical Council supported a closed-shop policy with an "old boys' club attitude".

The committee pointed to evidence of "patch protection" among medical colleges.

In particular, the College of Anaesthetists had not recommended the direct registration of any of the 40 overseas anaesthetists who had applied.

In one report, the committee commented on a petition calling for an inquiry into the problems faced by American dermatologist Dr Monty Hornbeck in trying to set up a practice in Nelson.

Dr Hornbeck, with 13 years' experience, said the process had cost him $350,000 and he was frustrated by the lack of communication from and between the council, the College of Physicians and the Dermatological Society.

He has since gained probationary registration.



The second report rejected an MP's bill that would have allowed the NZ Qualifications Authority to approve medical qualifications.

The committee said it could not support the two-tiered registration system for doctors.

It hoped the present system could be improved and that its recommendations would be fed into the proposed Health Professionals Competency Assurance Bill.

Medical Association chairman Dr John Adams said he was glad the bill had been rejected.

He denied that the registration process was too restrictive.

"We have not seen evidence that there are restrictive practices going on ... and we would worry that if there was too much flexibility then standards would start to fall."

Dr Adams said that although many thought the Medical Council was restrictive, in fact 38 per cent of the medical workforce was foreign-trained.

- NZPA