General practices are turning to "very expensive" recruitment agencies to lure overseas doctors as they struggle to find Kiwi doctors willing to move to the regions.
Some practices have spent months trying to find doctors, and end up paying large sums to recruitment agencies just to be considered by doctors who only use agencies to look for jobs.
Picton Medical Centre practice manager Leeanne Gardiner used recruitment agencies to find doctors when she struggled to find a replacement for a doctor taking maternity leave.
"I think it is a nationwide problem, rather than just a localised problem. There's just not enough Kiwi doctors coming through the ranks. They're all going to the cities or overseas."
More doctors seemed to be using recruitment agencies to find jobs, as it was a free service and easier than contacting individual practices to look for work, she said.
However practices had to pay significant amounts to have agencies refer doctors to them. Gardiner would not say how much the service cost her practice.
"It can be very expensive."
Using a recruitment agency allowed doctors to be more particular in the type of jobs they were looking for, taking location, hours of work and salary into consideration.
About a quarter of graduates from the Auckland and Otago medical schools left the country the year after graduating, a study by the New Zealand Medical Association showed.
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Many doctors preferred to work as locums, or doctors on a short-term contract, for anywhere from a month to a year, possibly as a means of travel, Gardiner said.
Redwoodtown Doctors practice manager Diane Chalmers said the number of locums looking for work meant there was a much higher turnover of doctors in practices than in previous years, which could be unsettling for elderly patients.
"They turn up and they don't know who they'll see. Gone are the days where you'll have a doctor for life."
There was one GP for every 1675 patients in Marlborough, higher than the Ministry of Health's recommended ratio of 1 to 1500.
A steadily increasing population was stretching GPs, and the only general practice in the region taking on new patients was Picton Medical Centre, which only accepted Picton residents.
Redwoodtown Doctors lost two permanent GPs in August last year, with locums filling the gaps and other doctors working extra shifts.
Chalmers said two permanent GPs had been hired and were due to start in October, but the practice would still be too busy to take on new patients.
"The doctors have done a stirling job of keeping appointments going, but it has been a huge workload for them and the nurses."
Primary Health Organisation chief executive Beth Tester said she was looking at ways to help general practices use recruitment agencies to find doctors.
"Using recruitment agencies seems to be normal practice now."
She was considering ways to help and would put her ideas to the PHO board, she said.
- The Marlborough Express
Some practices have spent months trying to find doctors, and end up paying large sums to recruitment agencies just to be considered by doctors who only use agencies to look for jobs.
Picton Medical Centre practice manager Leeanne Gardiner used recruitment agencies to find doctors when she struggled to find a replacement for a doctor taking maternity leave.
"I think it is a nationwide problem, rather than just a localised problem. There's just not enough Kiwi doctors coming through the ranks. They're all going to the cities or overseas."
More doctors seemed to be using recruitment agencies to find jobs, as it was a free service and easier than contacting individual practices to look for work, she said.
However practices had to pay significant amounts to have agencies refer doctors to them. Gardiner would not say how much the service cost her practice.
"It can be very expensive."
Using a recruitment agency allowed doctors to be more particular in the type of jobs they were looking for, taking location, hours of work and salary into consideration.
About a quarter of graduates from the Auckland and Otago medical schools left the country the year after graduating, a study by the New Zealand Medical Association showed.
Ad Feedback
Many doctors preferred to work as locums, or doctors on a short-term contract, for anywhere from a month to a year, possibly as a means of travel, Gardiner said.
Redwoodtown Doctors practice manager Diane Chalmers said the number of locums looking for work meant there was a much higher turnover of doctors in practices than in previous years, which could be unsettling for elderly patients.
"They turn up and they don't know who they'll see. Gone are the days where you'll have a doctor for life."
There was one GP for every 1675 patients in Marlborough, higher than the Ministry of Health's recommended ratio of 1 to 1500.
A steadily increasing population was stretching GPs, and the only general practice in the region taking on new patients was Picton Medical Centre, which only accepted Picton residents.
Redwoodtown Doctors lost two permanent GPs in August last year, with locums filling the gaps and other doctors working extra shifts.
Chalmers said two permanent GPs had been hired and were due to start in October, but the practice would still be too busy to take on new patients.
"The doctors have done a stirling job of keeping appointments going, but it has been a huge workload for them and the nurses."
Primary Health Organisation chief executive Beth Tester said she was looking at ways to help general practices use recruitment agencies to find doctors.
"Using recruitment agencies seems to be normal practice now."
She was considering ways to help and would put her ideas to the PHO board, she said.
- The Marlborough Express
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