KEY POINTS:
Auckland's AUT University is turning hundreds of potential students away from health science courses, despite high vacancies in many health occupations.
It blames Government restrictions on the number of funded student placements for midwifery and other health sciences and is pushing for the them to be lifted.
But Government spokesmen say there is no arbitrary cap on health science courses and that doctor, nurse and midwife training numbers will be increased.
The university's dean of health and environmental sciences, Professor Max Abbott, said the limits on health science student numbers were in conflict with the critical shortages of many kinds of health workers. The supply of graduates was an important factor in the shortages.
He said Waitemata District Health Board, of which he is deputy chairman, had vacancy rates of about 12 per cent among doctors, nurses, midwives and allied health workers - and other boards faced similar shortages.
Professor Abbott said university applications in Auckland had risen sharply, probably partly because of contraction of the job market. He called for the Government to immediately increase the number of funded student places, and not just in the health sciences.
In an email to Finance Minister Bill English last month, he said the extension of Tertiary Education Commission caps in health sciences - which were previously confined to medicine, dentistry and large-animal science - had severely constrained growth in student numbers.
"Last year, and again this year, I have found it very distressing to have to turn away many hundreds of able applicants in programmes where we face workforce crises.
This includes midwifery and oral health that the Ministry [of Health] considers particularly problematic.
"[This] is most unfortunate given that we have unprecedented numbers of applicants seeking to enter health education programmes."
The new Government's plan to offer voluntary bonding to doctors, nurses and midwives in hard-to-staff areas in return for student loan write-offs would help reduce health-worker shortages - although it missed some key occupations.
"However, the over-riding barrier is the TEC cap on funding for health education."
Education Minister Anne Tolley could not be reached, but her spokeswoman said the Education Act prevented the minister from directing the commission in relation to the funding of individual institutions.
Health Minister Tony Ryall said it was a Government priority to increase the number of doctors, nurses and midwives and - in addition to the voluntary bonding scheme - it would boost student places for those occupations.
But he was unable to say when.
The commission's tertiary network director, David Nicholson, said last year was the first in which tertiary education organisations began operating in a capped funding environment with investment plans to the end of 2010.
"Funding for AUT in 2009 allows for AUT's student achievement component (SAC) funding to increase by $8.196 million, a 6.4 per cent increase."
