More young doctors needed to specialise

Press, 29 July 1987, Page 7

More young doctors needed to specialise

PA Wellington Significant numbers of younger doctors are needed for the specialist fields of geriatric and rheumatology medicine, according to a report released by the National Health Statistics Centre. The relatively high proportion of older specialists in the field was a cause for concern, it says.

The Statistics Centre director, Mr John Findlay said the Advisory Committee on the Medical Workforce, set up last year, was considering radical changes in the way medical practitioners should be deployed. "These changes should improve the deployment of doctors to achieve a higher quality of service and efficiency for the consumer as well as to provide a balanced career and educational structure for the medical profession,” he said.

The report said New Zealand also needed more specialists in community medicine, and ear, nose and throat treatment to provide for retirement losses and growth. Over-all, the number of registered practising doctors had continued to increase faster than the population in the last 10 years. There was one doc-

tor for every 575 people in 1986, compared with one for every 772 in 1976. Mr Findlay said the numbers of junior doctors, general practitioners, and trainees in most specialist areas had grown.

“Junior doctor numbers — house officers and registrars (trained specialists) — have risen to 1414 in 1986, from 1346 in 1985.

"In addition, there were about 170 overseas graduates temporarily registered to work in shortterm hospital positions.” It was pleasing to note that in nearly all cases the number of New Zealand graduates has increased because they were more likely to practise in New Zealand, he said. There were now 2141 working general practitioners, one for every 1545 of the population, compared with 1976 when there were* 1576 G.P.S, one for every 1986 people. The proportion of New Zealand graduates had increased 6 per cent in the last 10 years and the number of women graduates had increased from 10.8 to 19 per cent. Specialist areas which continued to increase were anaesthetists, psychiatrists and pediatricians.