KEY POINTS:
Fewer than 50 per cent of overseas-trained doctors remain in New Zealand for more than a year after they are registered here.
The high turnover meant a big workload on the Medical Council - which registered doctors - and increased the possibility of errors, said council chairman John Campbell.
"The chances of someone slipping through the system are higher," he told a briefing in Wellington yesterday. Professor Campbell said the high turnover of overseas-trained doctors was also wasteful of the effort put into their employment.
"If you're going to invest two or three months of [work in] orientation in someone who's here for only six months or a year ... it really puts pressure on the system.
"You become much less enthusiastic about doing it."
Medical workforce figures released yesterday by the council - based on a survey of 9480 doctors in 2005 - showed that after the initial loss, the numbers of overseas-trained doctors who registered in this country keep slumping, until after three years less than one-third were left.
Professor Campbell described the nation's high reliance on foreign-trained doctors as very risky.
"Our turnover's too great," he said. "Small shifts in the availability of medical staff internationally can have a serious effect on our ability to recruit.
- NZPA
