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The junior doctors' union is on the verge of bringing in nationally coordinated training for the first time.
It comes as the country grapples with hospital staffing shortages in the lead-up to winter.
The Resident Doctors' Association's national secretary Deborah Powell said coordination across all the specialist streams was aimed to be a big help to both planners and doctors themselves.
"So it'd be nationally coordinated - we would be managing who we had going into training programmes where they had to be allocated in order to complete their training requirements, how they're progressing through the training programme, and ultimately guaranteeing them a job as an SMO (senior medical officer).
"We would know exactly who was graduating when and where, because we would have been assisting them progress through their training programme for the past five years. And so we know exactly what our production of SMOs is," Powell said.
Knowing they had a job, and where, two or three years out, would let junior doctors plan their family life - "so there's a lot to say for this system".
The association's initiative was being co-designed since before Christmas with Te Whatu Ora, she said.
"We're waiting for the resource to implement the programme" and expected that within weeks.
"If it's not [OKed], you'll probably be hearing from me."
The system to date had been "fragmented" between the now-defunct 20 district health boards, Powell said.
In addition, the 17 medical colleges look after their own trainees, and though they work together in some ways in a national Council of Medical Colleges, they also jostle for funding and training places.
Medical school graduates often go on to become house officers in hospitals for two or three years, then typically choose a speciality and become a registrar, with further training of between three and seven years, till they can vocationally register and take a senior medical officer position.
Te Whatu Ora was unable to provide a breakdown of how many registrars are in which year of their training, in what speciality, when RNZ asked for it.
Powell said "we'll be able to tell you with the push of a button" under the new national system.
"It's not just the pipeline information and security of pipeline for the resident doctors, it will make life for the resident doctors a lot easier."
Te Whatu Ora has been approached for comment.
