Linda Reynolds, deputy chief executive of the New Zealand Rural General Practice Network, revealed that worldwide medical graduates or IMGs were responsible for filling many roles, but that they were a short-term solution to a growing problem.
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Kiwi doctors were not prepared to uproot their families and overseas doctors were not flocking to New Zealand as they once had, which she put down to New Zealand tightening its criteria and Australia offering more money.
Practice co-owner Dr Alan Kenny says that numbers have increased rapidly in the town which has a population of 13,600 people.
“Auckland has the biggest medical school and most kids who go to medical school come from wealthy families in the Auckland area”, Dr Kenny told the newspaper.
And it is impossible to find a full time doctor, despite offering double the usual GP’s salary plus three months’ annual leave and no weekend or night work.
Medical recruitment firms have been unable to find a suitable candidate for Dr Kenny in the past two years, leading to him deciding to advertise the position on online job sites. Dr. Kenny noted that the medical school in Auckland was the largest in New Zealand.
“If it’s hard enough to get doctors to work alongside me, it’s going to be a devil of a job to get doctors to replace me”.
The town’s median income is just $17,300 (€10, 537) for people aged 15 and over and Tokoroa has some of the country’s cheapest houses.
Most of the town’s other doctors commute from Cambridge, Taupo or Rotorua. Tokoroa is a relatively economically depressed area with unemployment being at a high 22 percent.
The problem is widespread in rural New Zealand with a 2015 survey by the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners found that vacancies at rural practices took longer to fill than at urban practices. It takes approximately between two to three years to fill the rural practices, according to Guardian. They also tend to work more hours compared to the average GP.
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He blames the attractions of city life for young doctors’ lack of interest in living in a small town.
