Ruth Dyson

Wellington, Feb 22 NZPA - Labour Party health spokeswoman Ruth Dyson has taken issue with suggestions her party is responsible for New Zealand's shortage of medical specialists getting to such a concerning level.

Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) publication, Health at a Glance 2009, placed New Zealand bottom of 28 countries surveyed, with figures showing it had only 0.8 specialists per 1000 people.

Greece was top with 3.4 specialists per 1000 population, while Australia was 20th with 1.4. The OECD average was 1.8.

Health Minister Tony Ryall said the figures, based on 2007 data, were worrying.

"Everyone is concerned by the workforce crisis that the government has inherited. It's a real challenge to keep the public health service going when we have these staffing problems, but we are dealing with them," he told Radio New Zealand today.

The Government had introduced a voluntary bonding scheme for health professionals and was focusing on improving moral. It was employing more doctors in public hospitals, he said.

Mr Ryall said the Government had inherited a problem where not enough doctors had been trained.

Ms Dyson said there was a lack of truth in Mr Ryall's comments.

"His pronouncement that he inherited a doctor shortage from Labour could not be further from the truth, which is that Labour created 80 more doctor training places, while the previous National government created none.

"When Labour came to power in 1999 we had 285 medical student places at Otago and Auckland Universities. That number had not increased for two decades."

Ms Dyson said Labour health ministers had approved 40 more places in 2004 and another 40 in 2008, and more medical graduates were now training to become general practitioners too.

Meanwhile, since National came to power in 2008 there had been health cuts around New Zealand on a weekly basis.

"I am concerned that Mr Ryall's decision to blatantly mislead on doctor numbers is an attempt to cover up for his lack of a plan when it comes to work force issues," Ms Dyson said.

Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Ian Powell said the shortage problem here was being overcome with the help of hard working senior doctors, but if not addressed, the health system would eventually collapse.