<
https://theconversation.com/foreign-trained-doctors-sustain-nzs-health-system-we-werent-always-so-welcoming-282471>
"Without immigrant doctors, one expert quoted in a recent report said, New
Zealand’s health system “would be more on our knees than we already are”.
According to a survey by the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, over
43% of New Zealand doctors are trained overseas, the highest proportion in the
developed world.
In the year to July 2024, more than 70% of those registered came from 63
different countries. The government currently offers overseas-trained doctors a
funded training programme to bolster the country’s primary-care work force.
Some of those choosing to work in New Zealand want to escape the dire politics
of their homelands. From that perspective, this country’s workforce planning
problem is their opportunity.
It wasn’t always like this. In the late 1930s, Jewish doctors from Germany and
Austria were clamouring for entry to New Zealand to escape Nazi persecution.
But the New Zealand Branch of the British Medical Association – which had
wielded its power against the first Labour government to prevent “socialised
medicine” and hence retained the ability to charge a “fee for service” – was
averse to what the RSA named “an overdose of refugees”.
One advisor to the government suggested there was no need for “know-alls from
Vienna” – despite it being clear that medical services would be stretched as
men joined the forces to serve overseas. Prejudice against “enemy aliens”
overtook rational planning.
In June 1938, the Medical Council declared that, if threatened by “an influx of
foreign doctors”, it would “either require them to take a full six years’
course or bar them from practising”."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
