8. Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay of Plenty) Link to this
to the Minister of Health
What overseas recruitment activity has and is being undertaken by individual district health boards?
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister of Education) Link to this
District health boards regularly undertake a range of overseas recruitment activities. These include, for example, purchasing job advertisements in newspapers, and participating in career expos.
How cost-effective is it for 10 individual district health boards to send representatives to a recruitment expo in London—some sending up to five staff members each—halfway round the world; and is that the best use of health dollars to meet the vital goal of overseas recruitment?
Hon STEVE MAHAREY Link to this
That is a good question, and in fact I know that the Minister of Health—[ Interruption]—now and again the member does have a good question—has been encouraging district health boards to work together. I will give one example of many of that good cooperation that is going on at the present time—South Canterbury District Health Board recently recruited a large number of psychiatrists. Too many applied to come and live in our wonderful country, so that district health board made them available to other boards around the country.
Maryan StreetWhat is the Government doing to encourage New Zealanders to enter, and remain in, the health workforce?
Hon STEVE MAHAREY Link to this
This Government inherited a health workforce in crisis. Under National nurses were leaving the workforce in their thousands, medical student debt was out of control, and we faced a severe shortage of medical radiation therapists. In 1999 only 46 medical radiation therapists were being trained per year. That has more than doubled to 104. We have also provided over $500 million to deliver fair pay for district health board nurses, rather than see them disappear overseas as they did under National. In just over 2 weeks’ time interest on student loans will be waived for New Zealand - based graduates. I could go on but the list is rather long.
Barbara StewartIs there a national strategy for the development and retention of the medical workforce in New Zealand; if not, could that be described as a policy vacuum, and is anything being done to remedy the situation?
Hon STEVE MAHAREY Link to this
The answer is yes, so the answer to the second part of the question is no, and the third part is also no.
Does he have any concerns at all about the activities of the district health boards at the London expo where the stalls for the 10 district health boards—with up to five staff members each—were spread out across the expo venue, so that there was no coordinated New Zealand health presence?
Hon STEVE MAHAREY Link to this
As I said before, on behalf of the Minister of Health, this is an area that we do need to do more on to get better cooperation between the district health boards. That is what he is actively seeking for them to do. But I just want to point out that there always has been a method of recruitment that has been adopted by district health boards and their predecessors around the world and, in fact, for the last 25 years the same proportion of people have been coming into the country to be part of our medical workforce as are coming now.
How cost-effective is it for nine individual district health boards to send representatives to a recruitment expo in Manchester, with some sending up to five staff halfway round the world; is that the best use of limited taxpayers’ health dollars to fill the vital recruitment needs of our health system?
Hon STEVE MAHAREY Link to this
What we understand is that each of these district health boards is spending its money effectively in the same way that the health system has been doing for 25 years in order to recruit the same proportion of people. But as I have also said, on behalf of the Minister of Health, more cooperation has been, and is being, encouraged, with good results.
Jo GoodhewIs it really cost-effective for one individual district health board to send three senior staff halfway round the world to interview nine people and recruit four?
Hon STEVE MAHAREY Link to this
I think it would be important for the member to take to the Minister of Health the individual case she has. For example, if seeking the services of highly skilled people to come into our district health board system requires senior staff to interview candidates face-to-face, that may well be a good use of district health board money. So let us have the individual case, rather than the innuendo, and we will see whether it stands up.
Can the Minister not see how ordinary New Zealand taxpayers must feel when they see 10 individual district health boards sending up to five staff each to employment expos in London and Manchester; and how can he tell this House that that uncoordinated process is the best spending of the $2 million that district health boards are currently devoting to the vital task of recruiting overseas doctors and nurses?
Hon STEVE MAHAREY Link to this
It is certainly an improvement, I think, on the massive fragmentation of the health system in the 1990s. As I have said to the member, this is something that the Minister of Health believes requires more coordination. Good examples are emerging and more will do so.