Letter To Lure Doctors Home

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32306, 26 May 1970, Page 19

Letter To Lure Doctors Home

fN.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND. May 25. . Auckland medical men ; seem unimpressed by a j Government attempt to lure l back to New Zealand doctors who have emigrated. The Department of Health j has sent a six-page letter to; 1 990 New Zealand doctors now !working overseas, seeking to: iinform them of changes in; salaries and conditions for' the medical profession in New Zealand. Spokesmen for both the Medical Association of New Zealand (formerly the 8.M.A.) and the breakaway New Zealand Medical Association can foresee no mass medical migration back to

New Zealand as a result of the letter. “The most significant implication. of the letter is that it represents the first public admission by the Government that there is, in fact a serious shortage of in j New Zealand." sjid the | national president of the ' Medical Association of New : Zealand. Dr Lindsay Brown. ; Dr Brown’s view was j echoed by Dr M. Cooper, a

member bf the executive of the New Zealand Medical Association. “Hitherto, the Department of Health has insisted that New Zealand has no shortage of doctors, merely a 'maldistribution' geographically,” said Dr ! Cooper. “But this letter now suggests that the department fat last appreciates the true I nature of the problem.” Both Dr Brown and Dr I Cooper felt that the letter was unlikely to attract home to New Zealand doctors who j were earning incomparably j more money overseas. “But money isn’t the only ! obstacle." said Dr Brown. “Many other aspects of our medical services need improving. “But our medical administration is so hopelessly out-of-date and inflexible that it will be years before we see many changes for the better.”