In good news for international doctors, Health NZ has reversed a policy that would have posed an additional barrier to those hoping to work here.
Earlier, Te Whatu Ora had indicated applicants needed to meet a particular criteria to be able to enter its first-year residency programme (PGY1).
Under the criteria, even if doctors had relevant clinical experience and passed their New Zealand registration (NZREX), doctors still would need to have either graduated within the last 10 years or had worked as doctors within the last seven.
It was a limitation that concerned those doctors, who’d previously celebrated what appeared to be a more open pathway into New Zealand’s health system, with the announcement in mid-December of more exam spots for international doctors.
The NZREX is an exam that assesses the clinical safety of overseas-trained doctors who aren’t eligible to be registered through any of the Medical Council’s other pathways (Source: 1News)
The expansion of exam slots also came with assurances that Health NZ was also looking at offering as many placements as they could to the newly trained NZREX doctors.
Previously foreign doctors had reported struggling to get a slot, or to find the required first-year placement that would guarantee them a path into working as a doctor in New Zealand.
Today, Health NZ national chief medical officer Dame Helen Stokes-Lampard said the organisation is committed to supporting international doctors — with the appropriate registration and clinical experience — into hospital and primary care sector roles.
She confirmed to 1News that the agency would no longer introduce “employment qualifying periods related to recent clinical practise”.
“Specifically, written selection criteria about graduation periods of seven to 10 years and the requirement to have worked in permanent employment in the last seven years have been removed from the Health NZ PGY1 application processes.”
“We are also looking at options for extending current bridging programmes to further support international doctors where appropriate.”
