Without immigrant doctors, one expert quoted in a recent report said, New Zealand’s health system “would be more on our knees than we already are”.

According to a survey by the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, over 43% of New Zealand doctors are trained overseas, the highest proportion in the developed world.

In the year to July 2024, more than 70% of those registered came from 63 different countries. The government currently offers overseas-trained doctors a funded training programme to bolster the country’s primary-care work force.

Some of those choosing to work in New Zealand want to escape the dire politics of their homelands. From that perspective, this country’s workforce planning problem is their opportunity.

It wasn’t always like this. In the late 1930s, Jewish doctors from Germany and Austria were clamouring for entry to New Zealand to escape Nazi persecution.

But the New Zealand Branch of the British Medical Association – which had wielded its power against the first Labour government to prevent “socialised medicine” and hence retained the ability to charge a “fee for service” – was averse to what the RSA named “an overdose of refugees”.

One advisor to the government suggested there was no need for........

© The Conversation