Loans Expert

Although several health practitioner groups have welcomed a National Party policy on voluntary bonding for some recently qualified health professionals, they caution that such a move should not be seen as a total solution to workforce shortages.

National leader John Key this week announced that, under the policy, student loan debt write-offs would be offered to 50 to 100 graduate doctors a year and about 200 nurses and midwives.

It is yet to be decided which hard-to-staff communities or specialties would qualify for the incentives.

A new doctor in an area covered by the scheme would qualify for a $30,000 write-off once he or she had been in the job for three full years.

Loan write-offs at $10,000 a year would continue to be paid for two years after that, as long as the doctor remained in the job.

The annual debt write-off for nurses and midwives would be about $3500 a year and payments would also not be made until they had been employed in a specified area for three years.

Mr Key said the scheme would cost about $3 million in the first year, rising to $9 million in the third.

It would be open to health professionals who had graduated since 2005.

Rural General Practice Network chairwoman Kirsty Murrell-McMillan said she was delighted the policy covered doctors, nurses and midwives and she was looking forward to seeing the detail of it.

She hoped her organisation would be one of those consulted by National when it was identifying the areas where shortages were critical.

“If you don’t ask people at the coal face, you won’t necessarily get the right answers.”

National had already listened to the network’s views about not suggesting bonding for 17-year-olds, she said.

The scheme, as outlined so far, would reward people who had shown a serious commitment to an area, but there would still be retention issues which needed addressing.

“If we don’t pay them enough, if we don’t look after issues such as after-hours care, then we still won’t keep them, whether they have been given a loan write-off or not.”

New Zealand Medical Students Association president Anna Dare welcomed the announcement, but suggested the difficulty could be in deciding the areas of greatest need.

Shortages applied across the board, not just in rural areas or some specialties, she said.

It would have been good to see a policy which applied to all graduates, as New Zealand was continuing to lose about 30% of its young doctors within the first three years after graduation.

To be most effective, the policy would need to be coupled with a commitment to increase funded medical school places and to promote a climate ensuring new graduates saw New Zealand as a viable place to work.

Dunedin New Zealand Resident Doctors Association representative Dr Logan Mitchell said the union’s view was that more money should be put into salaries generally to make staying more attractive for all, but politicians were more comfortable with a more focused approach.

The scheme would be more positive than doing nothing, but he did not consider it would necessarily stop doctors leaving after three years.

New Zealand Medical Association chairman Dr Peter Foley also said the policy was not a complete solution, but a major step to address doctor shortages.

Tertiary Education Minister Pete Hodgson said the Government already provided incentives for doctors to stay in New Zealand and National’s policy was redundant.

“We have in place a range of bonded scholarships,” he said.

“In 2009, more than 2000 bonded academic scholarships will be available to students. Those who receive them are bonded to remain in New Zealand for up to four years after graduation.”

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