“My practice has exploded in the previous year and the more patients you list, the more money you get”, the doctor told the Herald.
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Practice co-owner Dr Alan Kenny says that numbers have increased rapidly in the town – population 13,600 – and he has not been able to keep holiday plans because of the lack of a locum or replacement. But it just gets too much at the end of the day.
RNZCGP CEO Helen Morgan-Banda said that most of the Global Positioning System that fill vacancies in rural areas were older males who trained in Britain and South Africa.
Dr Kenny is already 61 years old and he is also looking for someone to replace him when the time comes.
Dr Alan Kenny of Tokoroa, Waikato, was bombarded on Wednesday with thousands of applications and inquiries about a second doctor for the rural New Zealand town.
‘Auckland has the biggest medical school and most kids who go to medical school come from wealthy families in the Auckland area. Just because I earn lots of money doesn’t mean I want to work my butt off.
In the job advertisement, now advertised on seek.co.nz, it describes the working environment as a “high income practice in Waikato”, and a “long established practice in near new premises with welcoming work environment”. On a typical day, he works from 8:30 AM up to 6:00 PM without even taking a lunch break.
The rural doctor’s surgery in Tokoroa in the Waikato region of New Zealand’s North Island sounds and looks like a great place to start a new life.
‘I love my work and I would like to stay but I hit my head against a brick wall trying to attract doctor, ‘ he told the New Zealand Herald. He promised that a junior doctor would not have to work at nights or on weekends.
A survey by the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners has found 37 percent of rural practices had a vacancy in 2014 compared with 42 percent of urban practices, but that vacancies in rural practices took longer to fill.
Pinnacle Midlands Health chief executive John Macaskill-Smith said offering a premium to rural doctors was not enough.
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But there were a couple of candidates with “rigorous qualifications” who he was considering.
