Media release from Association of Salaried Medical Specialists

"The government's voluntary bonding scheme for health professionals has much merit but it is delusional if it believes that it will help solve New Zealand's senior hospital doctor shortages crisis," said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, today.

"There are signs that the bonding scheme is doing some good for some health professional groups.  But the overwhelming feed-back we are getting from senior and junior doctors is that hospital specialist employment conditions in Australia are simply far too superior for this scheme to be a major part of the solution to the senior doctor workforce crisis in our public hospitals."

"We are losing a steady trickle of New Zealand specialists to Australia, we are losing increasing numbers of young doctors in training to specialist positions in Australia, and we can't compete against Australia in recruiting specialists from other parts of the world.  In a word, we are trapped in a tightening vice.  Some might say that if things continue the way they are, 'we're stuffed'."

"Public hospitals will not be able to provide the quality and accessibility of services that patients deserve and will not be able to achieve a number of commendable government objectives until this medical workforce crisis is resolved.'

"Central to solving our medical workforce crisis is employment conditions that enable public hospitals to successfully recruit and retain senior doctors," concluded Mr Powell.