2 Aug 2022

New health workforce plan still reliant on foreign workers

From Midday Report, 12:20 pm on 2 August 2022

A health workforce expert says the government's newly announced staffing strategy will do little to ease New Zealand's reliance on foreign trained and born medical staff.

The new plan - announced yesterday - does increase the domestic supply of doctors and nurses with more training positions for GPs, nurse practitioners, and radiology registrars but there's a continued focus on securing staff from overseas.

The latest international figures - from 2019 - show Aotearoa is the second-most dependent on international medical graduates of the developed countries in the OECD.

Otago University professor Robin Gauld spoke to Māni Dunlop about the plan.

Get the RNZ app

for easy access to all your favourite programmes

Subscribe to Midday Report

Podcast (MP3) Oggcast (Vorbis)