Health workforce planning 'paralysis by analysis'
Hon. Tony Ryall MP
National Party Health spokesman
26 May 2006
Health workforce planning 'paralysis by analysis'
Two reports out today on the staffing crisis
facing the health workforce amount to "paralysis by
analysis", says National's Health spokesman, Tony
Ryall.
The reports, one from the Ministry of Health and
the other from the Health Workforce Advisory Committee, say
New Zealand is losing its health workforce to Australia.
"It's time Labour stopped wasting money on endless
reports and actually started fixing the problem. Pete
Hodgson's talk of yet another committee is
hopeless.
"Qualified people are being driven out of New
Zealand. The shortage of GPs will affect patients in ways we
dare not imagine - it is only a matter of time before many
Kiwis don't have a GP at all," Mr Ryall told a GPs
conference in Rotorua this morning.
"Without urgent
action, patients will end up on a new waiting list - to see
a GP.
"New Zealanders would be horrified to know that in
Britain it is Tony Blair's dream for patients to see a GP
within 48 hours. We don't want that in New Zealand.
"Already there are hundreds of people on the Kapiti Coast who have no GP. Last week newspapers reported that families in two provincial cities could not enrol in a GP practice. Newspapers have also reported GPs wanting to pull out of providing after-hours care.
"Labour have known about the
workforce crisis for years but decided to waste money and
time on endless reports stating the obvious.
"National
says we need to enable our medical schools to train more
doctors for careers in local communities and rural areas.
All the evidence shows that the more GPs you have, the
healthier your community.
"National's policy is also to encourage DHBs to offer student loan write-offs for health graduates working in designated hard-to-staff provincial and rural areas.
"Coupled with personal tax cuts, these are real incentives to grow and retain our GP workforce," says Mr Ryall.
ENDS