NZ must train more medics, doctors say

Doctors' leaders say New Zealand must train its own medical specialists rather than relying on foreign staff.

The Medical Council says the country should offer fewer medical school places to overseas students and train more doctors for New Zealand.

Council chairman Professor John Campbell said many regional hospitals struggle to fill positions and New Zealand should train its own hospital doctors instead of recruiting from the developing world.

The council suggested setting up teams of regional specialists to work across district health boundaries to ensure cover in smaller hospitals.

"We're not training enough of our own and we're a First World country," Professor Campbell said.

"You really have to ask why we're not self-sufficient. Should we really be looking to attract doctors from Third World countries?

"I think we have to look carefully at the numbers of people we're taking into medical school and whether we should use the proportion we do now to train international students."

But Association of Salaried Medical Specialists president, Palmerston North paediatrician Jeff Brown, said today shortages would take a decade to fix.

Wellington's only liver surgeon yesterday announced he was moving to Auckland, creating a gap of specialist knowledge in the capital.

"We are wearing the legacy of the 1990s," Mr Brown told National Radio. "Market forces won't turn up a liver surgeon overnight to solve the shortage.

"It takes a long time to train a specialist and it takes a long time to develop a service around specialists. Those things are easily lost and very difficult to build up."

- NZPA, HERALD ONLINE STAFF