MEDIA STATEMENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE,

TUESDAY, 29 MARCH 2011

“Health Workforce Boss Got It Badly Wrong; Whitewashing Specialist Doctor Crisis”

“Health workforce boss Des Gorman has got it badly wrong in his comments on specialist doctor staffing in public hospitals,” said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, today. Mr Powell was responding to comments yesterday by Des Gorman, Chair of the government’s workforce advisory committee, Health Workforce New Zealand.

“He claimed that public hospitals have more than 500 extra senior doctors than a year or two ago. But the latest Medical Council data only has 296 new specialists registered in 2009 (10% less than 2005). This figure declines considerably when resignations and retirements are discounted. We estimated the average annual net gain to be as low as around 136.”

“His organisation’s own website reports an average annual growth of 423 doctors from 2005 to 2009 but this also includes general practitioners and junior doctors. Specialists are only one part of this number.”

“Sadly Des Gorman is on another planet when he suggests that there is little difference with Australian salaried specialists. The average specialist salary (40-hour week) for a specialist with 14 years service in New Zealand is about the same as the average Australian specialist salary with no service. He misleadingly refers to the salaries only being higher in parts of Queensland. In fact in Brisbane they are even higher than the average Australian salary.”

“He exaggerates over the extent of clinical leadership in public hospitals which he describes as an attraction for senior doctors to come to New Zealand. In a survey of public hospital senior doctors late last year all district health boards were ranked less than 50% over their performance in achieving clinical leadership. If it had been an old school card the score would have been between C- and E.”

“Further, only 20% of senior doctors believed they had enough time to participate in clinical leadership. This is because New Zealand’s shortages are so great that most senior doctors simply don’t have enough time.”

“Des Gorman chairs an important organisation that we want to work. Making widely astray comments that read like a whitewash of our specialist doctor crisis in public hospitals only serves to undermine its credibility,” concluded Mr Powell.

ENDS

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