{"id":601479,"date":"2026-09-15T22:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T22:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/601479\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T22:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T22:28:10","slug":"two-thirds-of-overseas-trained-medical-specialists-leave-again-in-less-than-five-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/601479\/","title":{"rendered":"Two thirds of overseas-trained medical specialists leave again in less than five years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many patients had their referrals rejected, and were never seen by a specialist, with referral rejection or non-acceptance rates reaching around one in five in some districts.<\/p>\n

The college is calling for a 10-year National Health Workforce Plan which crosses electoral cycles, and work to build a sustainable specialist workforce through investments in training, support and retention.<\/p>\n

It is also calling for stronger rural and regional training.<\/p>\n

While 16% of New Zealanders live in rural areas<\/a>, only 1% of RACP physicians were based there.<\/p>\n

Two-thirds of RACP physicians and trainees are based in Auckland, Wellington and Canterbury, while some regions have only a handful of college members \u2013 de Zoysa describes these areas as \u201cspecialist deserts\u201d.<\/p>\n

The West Coast has just three, Marlborough 11 and Tasman 20, leaving many regional communities without timely access to specialists.<\/p>\n

It was often up to the patient to travel to the nearest specialist.<\/p>\n

Retention was also an issue. International medical graduates made up nearly half of New Zealand\u2019s medical workforce \u2013 one of the highest proportions in the OECD.<\/p>\n

Only 28% remained in New Zealand after five years, compared with 85% of doctors trained locally.<\/p>\n

According to the RCAP, only half receive a formal induction into the health system, and just 3% report receiving any meaningful orientation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t feel valued and they don\u2019t feel supported,\u201d de Zoysa said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can make that investment in people and hang on to them, that\u2019s 30 years of a trained specialist who will provide care to literally thousands of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another aspect was pay. \u201cI\u2019ve been working as an internal medicine specialist for over 20 years and my salary is less than a junior consultant starting salary in Australia,\u201d said de Zoysa.<\/p>\n

Gastroenterologist Dr James Irwin recently resigned from his position at Palmerston North Hospital, where he was the last one left<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Three doctors have now accepted positions there, with one due to start this month.<\/p>\n

Staffing regional hospitals was difficult, Irwin said \u2013 there was often less support available, and smaller teams, which felt the effect of staff absences more acutely.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re in a small place and you go from four to three or three to two, all of a sudden it feels unsafe.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was also affecting patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no consultation on wards for patients with gastroenterology problems in hospital, like liver transplant patients or patients with acute severe colitis or Crohn\u2019s disease,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople miss out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Jessica Allen, an adolescent and developmental paediatrician, said things were also hard in her field.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen a dramatic increase in referrals for behavioural and developmental concerns for children.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there had been no targeted investment in improving training or capacity.<\/p>\n

Diagnoses could be delayed by several years, she said, and children and families were missing out on support, be that funding, or physical aids for disabilities.<\/p>\n

Induction for staff was likely \u201chighly varied\u201d around the country, and there was no national plan, which contributed to a lack of support for new staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would hope that in a local setting that people do their best, but there are a lot of differences about the New Zealand health system, about our culture, about how things work in Aotearoa altogether.\u201d<\/p>\n

Associate Health Minister Matt Doocey, who has jurisdiction over this part of the workforce part of the portfolio, said he agreed there needed to be a focus on long-term workforce needs.<\/p>\n

The Government already had a health workforce plan in place, which Doocey said was already paying off \u2013 and work was also underway on a longer-term workforce strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re also working with medical colleges on integrated rural training pathways and establishing a new medical school at Waikato University focused on training doctors for rural and provincial settings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere you live shouldn\u2019t determine the healthcare you can receive. We\u2019re backing rural clinicians with the training, support and workforce they need, including through the refreshed $6 million National Rural Recruitment and Locum Support Service.\u201d<\/p>\n

Health NZ national chief medical officer Dame Helen Stokes-Lampard said the agency recognised workforce planning was vital, and had a focus on retention.<\/p>\n

\u201cBuilding a sustainable health workforce with enough doctors, nurses and allied health professionals on the frontline is a top priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

Work was underway to strengthen the rural workforce, including bringing Rural Hospital Medicine training into Health NZ employment and allowing rural clinicians to provide a wide range of care, and increasing the visibility of available roles nationwide to make it easier for doctors to move into specialist roles.<\/p>\n

The new Waikato medical school would also increase the home-grown medical workforce.<\/p>\n

\u201cHealth NZ is committed to working alongside RACP and other vocational colleges to build a co-ordinated approach to rural workforce development.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many patients had their referrals rejected, and were never seen by a specialist, with referral rejection or non-acceptance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[6030,1342,2518,134,527,78,2517,12514,7494,3523,111,139,69,1118,260213,9712,131,296451,1237,1530],"class_list":["post-601479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-again","tag-five","tag-green","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-in","tag-kate","tag-leave","tag-less","tag-medical","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-overseastrained","tag-specialists","tag-than","tag-thirds","tag-two","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}