NZ doctors make $8000 for weekend

Jason Pascoe. Photo / Supplied

New Zealand doctors are choosing longer stays across the Tasman over the fleeting weekend visits that can pay them more than $8000, a medical recruitment specialist says.

But the senior doctors' union says the trickle of locums overseas is no cause for panic.

A chronic doctor shortage in New South Wales has led to more locums from New Zealand covering shifts that cannot be filled by locals.

Some, known as "weekend warriors", fly to Australia on a Friday, work two days and return home on Monday - pocketing $8170 or more for the weekend's work.

But a booming demand for doctors in emergency departments in regional NSW, higher rates of pay and a weaker New Zealand dollar means many are now staying longer.

The managing director of MedRecruit, Sam Hazeldine, said his company had sent about 50 locums to NSW and Queensland in the past year.

"They have a shortage as we seem to have here but the difference is that they have got budgets to pay for the locum doctors," he said.

Dr Hazeldine said the number of locums going for the weekend stints was declining and more were seeking longer contracts of three to six months from which they could earn "at least double" what they made at home.

"For the sort of equivalent types of positions where someone might be earning $75 an hour here, they are earning at least $150 an hour over there. It just makes it more attractive, doesn't it?

"They are going over there enjoying work conditions and living in great beach resorts. It's a real challenge for the New Zealand system, which at the moment can't really compete."

Among those to make the move was 40-year-old Jason Pascoe, from Mt Wellington.

The married father-of-three worked as a locum for the Southland District Health Board for two years before choosing the warmer climes of Port Macquarie last year. He has worked as an emergency department doctor at Bega Hospital, in southern New South Wales since January because "it's closer to the skifields".

"It's great, I'm enjoying it really, it's very well-paid and they are very accommodating with regards to when I work and my family are with me and they're enjoying it."

He would have stayed in New Zealand but said he left because District Health Boards were trying to drive down pay rates for locums.

"They may not like having to pay the locums but they are there filling the shortages and its a market thing. Now if you don't have the supply then they'll go to locums to fill the gaps."

Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Ian Powell said while the situation was negative overall, he saw some benefits.

"Rather than leaving the country permanently at least some people can stay in New Zealand by supplementing their income," he said.

NSW doctors are concerned about the spiralling cost for locums, which reached $59 million for the 2009-10 financial year. They said they were effectively stopped from doing locum work by NSW Health policy.

DOCTORS' DOUBLE

* NZ doctors can make more than $8000 for a weekend.

* The doctor shortage in Australia means they can earn double what they make at home.

* More are opting for longer stays than weekend stints.

* A 2007 survey showed New Zealand was losing one specialist a week to Australia.