Doctors fear added training strain

While the $25 million Budget boost for training extra doctors is a step in the right direction, it will also create problems of its own, say those involved.

The Budget package will fund 60 extra medical school places next year, gradually increasing to 200 within five years, to take the total number of doctors trained in New Zealand each year to 565.

However, critics say the plans to bolster trainee numbers could overload already-stretched medical schools.

And doctors' groups warn that without improving pay and conditions, the Government risks wasting money training doctors who end up in Australia.

Auckland University's medical dean, Professor Iain Martin, said medical schools supported raising the numbers as an important step to creating "a sustainable workforce".

"But there's no doubt the overall impact of the Budget is likely to increase, rather than decrease, the pressures we face," he told the Christchurch Press.

The university's biggest challenge would be finding enough teaching staff and clinical training places, he said.

"Academics who can teach in medical programmes are a very sought-after resource and recruitment will become appreciably more difficult with the loss of the tripartite funding."

The fund to support salary increases for university staff was axed in the Budget.

New Zealand Medical Students' Association president William Perry also warned increasing medical student numbers "could come at a higher cost than expected".

"Teaching resources and clinical opportunities for learning are already stretched. We need to make sure that we maintain a high quality of education and that we continue to produce world-class doctors."

More needed to be done to keep doctors in New Zealand, Mr Perry said.

The World Health Organisation last year found that 30 per cent of New Zealand doctors left the country within three years of graduating.

- NZPA