Buzz Burrell: General Practitioners Aotearoa Chair on the expanded pathways for overseas-trained doctors

The Medical Council's expanding pathways for doctors trained overseas to work in New Zealand.  

GP registrations from the US, Canada, and Singapore are being fast tracked, and doctors trained in Chile, Luxembourg, and Croatia will be recognised as eligible for provisional general registration.  

Timeframes for UK, Ireland, and Australian specialist assessments are also being shortened. 

But General Practitioners Aotearoa Chair Buzz Burrell told Heather du Plessis-Allan 60% of international doctors leave after two years.  

He says we need to work on retaining doctors and not being an immigration agency for Australia. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Changes are being made to fast track more foreign doctors
into the country. The Medical councils adding three new countries
to the list of those that we accept doctors from
really quickly. It's Chile, Luxembourg and Croatia. Doctor Buzzborella is
the chair of the General Practitioners outs Here or and
worth Us.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Morning Buzz, Good morning Heather.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
So have we got doctors from those countries actually interested
in coming.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Here at that point? Look? I hope, I hope we do.
But more importantly, I hope once we get them, we
attract them, we can retain them. It's fine bringing doctors
into the country. God help is if being a top
on my accent time one of them. Sixty percent of
this country as doctors come from overseas. The problem is
that the Medical Council of data shows that within twelve
months of doctors arriving here, forty percent leave and by

(00:44):
two years sixty percent of left. So attracting is one thing,
and that's good, and it we've got incentives to do that.
That's great. What we need to work on next is
retaining those doctors and not simply being an immigration agency
for Australia.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Yeah, totally now, when we do when we fast track them.
How fast are we fast track them?

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, your question, honestly don't know. Mine. It is that
we can shrink it down from a year or two
to two a matter of months, and that's really important.
We are easily on the underestimate five hundred GP short
in this country at the moment, on a good day,
probably one thousand GP short. So gosh, if we can
fastrack into a week, that would be brilliant. One needles
to say that that was fantasy. But the faster the better. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Absolutely, Now I see the hospitals are getting slammed at
the moment by the winter illnesses. What about you not?

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Likewise, we're being slammed at left, right, in the center.
But probably the biggest way of being slammed is the fact,
as I said, we are short. The demand is exceeding
the supply to meet it as a result of which
people are going to after hours and people are turning
up to the murderty departments, and we do not have
capacity in the secondary sector to look after the primary overflow.
So the entire health sector is being slammed, and we

(01:52):
being doctors, and there's no substitute for doctors. Either We
simply just need doctors who can diagnose and treat and
not miss them and that that's crucial. So it thumbs
up for the initiative, but look, let's work on the retention.
Is my summary on that good stuff.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
Buzz, I really appreciate your time, Doctor Buzzbarell, Chair of
the General Practitioners.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Out here always for more from the Mic Asking Breakfast,
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