Indian doctors lead interest in new GP pathway

Doctors trained in India are leading interest in a new government pathway aimed at fast-tracking overseas-trained physicians into general practice.

The special pathway has been created in an attempt to tackle the country's shortage of GPs.

Indian-trained doctors submitted 34 expressions of interest for the new pathway - the highest of any country - followed by the Philippines with 17 and Sri Lanka with 16.

China and Pakistan each accounted for 15 applications.

In total, Health New Zealand received about 180 applications, with 121 (around 67 percent) coming from Asia, showing a strong concentration of interest from the region compared to other parts of the world.

The pathway, announced in March last year by Health Minister Simeon Brown, is designed to bring 100 overseas-trained doctors into general practice roles to help ease pressure on a stretched primary healthcare system.

A total of $23.94 million over four years has been allocated to the overseas-doctors-in-general-practice initiative.

"The EOI [expression of interest] process in May last year was run as a national process to assess the level of interest in the pathway but was not a definitive number of those eligible to commence the pathway," said Martin Hefford, acting director of funding, community and mental health at Health New Zealand.

Hefford said details of respondents were provided to districts named as preferences by applicants, with local recruitment processes then used to select doctors for the pathway.

In May, Brown said progress had been made in expanding the overseas-trained medical workforce in primary care.

The programme helps qualified international doctors gain registration, with a strong focus on those wanting to enter general practice.

It also provides a pathway for overseas-trained doctors already in the country who are ready to contribute to the health system.

According to the minister, 49 international doctors had commenced through the programme as of May this year, working across Auckland, Northland, Waikato, Lakes, Bay of Plenty, Capital Coast, Hutt Valley, Wairarapa, Canterbury and the West Coast.

"We know the biggest barrier for Kiwis is simply getting an appointment with their GP," Brown said last month.

"Supporting 100 overseas-trained doctors already living here to complete their registration and build long-term careers in general practice is a key part of fixing that."

For many overseas-trained doctors, however, the pathway to practising medicine in New Zealand has been long and complex.

Palmerston North GP Abhi Gotadki knows that experience firsthand.

Trained in India, Gotadki later completed a postgraduate degree in public health at the University of Auckland and became a New Zealand citizen but still found himself shut out of the system.

In 2019, he made the difficult decision to leave his family and move to the United Kingdom to train as a GP.

"I returned from the UK after training there for over four years and for the past three years I've been working in Palmerston North," he said.

Since returning in 2023, his British qualification has enabled him to practise in New Zealand after working under supervision toward full recognition as a fellow of the New Zealand College of General Practitioners.

"I was doing ACC case management, so some work within the industry which would bring me closer to medicine but not really doing anything actively in medicine," he said.

He was not alone.

Many doctors trained overseas have reported taking up work in call centres or driving Ubers while waiting to navigate New Zealand's registration process.

Realising how difficult the pathway was, Gotadki's friend in Australia set up a Facebook support group for overseas-trained doctors and asked him to help manage it.

"It was initially out of a lot of disillusionment about the registration pathways," Gotadki said.

He later started another group for incoming UK-trained doctors with specialist qualifications seeking fellowship of the Royal College of GPs in New Zealand.

"We support each other in whatever way we can, and the group has grown substantially over time," he said.

Gotadki believed international doctors could make a strong contribution to New Zealand but said they needed better wraparound support.

"[They] bring in a lot of adaptability, flexibility, ability to change in terms of having to learn quickly the ropes, navigate the systems, collaborate quite a lot, and work hard and work long hours to make it through the exams," he said.

"The wraparound support could be around cultural training, aside that, knowing that each region has challenges: regional, provincial versus urban," Gotadki said.

He said challenges remained for GPs, including bottlenecks such as pay gaps and administrative workloads, but believed the pathway was a step in the right direction.

Gotadki said the country still needed local doctors but would need to rely on overseas-trained doctors for at least the next few years.

"The Waikato Medical School is not going to be up and running at least up until, say, end of 2027," he said.

"And then that would need another further four years for any young graduates from that med school, specifically working in general practice," he said.

"[In] the next four or five years, the country is still in need of up to 400 to 500 more GPs."