Scheme fails to lure doctors

Despite a government bonding scheme, the region needs more junior doctors.

Junior doctor positions are still proving difficult to fill in the Lakes area, six years after a government scheme was launched to encourage graduates into shortage areas.

The Ministry of Health launched the Voluntary Bonding Scheme in 2009 - aiming to encourage graduates to work in hard-to-staff health specialties and communities.

Participants can apply for a payment after three years, and then after four and five years.

The terms and conditions, and amounts paid out vary between professions. Eligible doctors can receive $10,000 a year, while midwives can receive $3500, and nurses can receive $2833. If participants have a student loan, the money will go towards paying it back.

Roles for junior doctors in medicine, psychiatry and orthopaedics were still hard to staff, Lakes District Health Board spokeswoman Sue Wilkie said. The board was unaware how many staff members were involved in the Voluntary Bonding Scheme.

The Rotorua Daily Post asked the Ministry of Health for the number but was told it was "not captured in the ministry's method of data collection".

Ms Wilkie believed more DHB involvement in placing trainees could help fill hard-to-staff areas. "If the trainees don't get exposure to hospitals in provincial areas, as part of their training, they are less likely to accept a position there when they qualify as a consultant."

Senior psychiatry roles and senior roles at Taupo Hospital's emergency department were also difficult to staff, Ms Wilkie said.

Nationwide, 2303 graduates have completed the three-year minimum requirement of the scheme since 2009.

The Labour Party's health spokeswoman Annette King supported the scheme, but believed it should cover more shortage areas.

"It's another important tool to encourage graduates into areas that aren't popular.

"What I think needs to happen now is to look at other shortage areas and the numbers being trained to support them.

"For example, there's a real shortage of dental therapists and there's a growing shortage of oncologists.

"Those areas could also benefit from voluntary bonding, particularly in terms of getting people to go to regions where there's some real shortages of professional skills."

A formal review of the scheme will be conducted in 2016 to update the ministry's "knowledge and understanding of the impact of the scheme ".