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Andrew Dickens: Why the plan for a new Waikato medical school might not work · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It beggars belief these days when we report that it's
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: hard to make money if you're a doctor, it's hard
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: to make money if you have got a GP practice.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: It beggars belief that we don't have enough doctors in
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: this country. Primary medical care is the most important care
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: we can have. Forget your fancy specialists, forget your rock
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: star surgeons. If a GP can spot and fix a
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: problem as it begins, then you can save your life
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: and you can save the nation a ton on costs
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: down the line. So the health of our primary health
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: sector should be of primary importance, but it hasn't been.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: We've added a million people through immigration over the past
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: ten years, and we've also been creating new New Zealanders ourselves,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: while our numbers of doctors per head of population is plummeted.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: There's two ways to get new doctors right. One way
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: is to find them and import them from overseas, but
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: that is necessarily difficult because not every Tom Dick and
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Harry who say their doctors are in fact doctors. We've
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: seen stories about that. The other way is to train
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: them ourselves, and in that area, I believe we've been
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: waefully short on the numbers. I do not know why
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: you'd think our doctor trading would increase in line of population,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: but it hasn't for decades. And what about this University
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: of Waikato new medical school which was an election policy.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Remember it was built on top of a report completed
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: by Steven Joyce's consultancy firm, which is basically Stephen in
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: some researches, a consultancy report that was not cheap. It
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: was pushed by the University of Waikato. It got supported
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: by the people who became the government. We're supposed to
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: have a new medical school in the Wykato in Hamilton.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Well we are a year into the new administration and
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: where are we at. We've got nothing. The medical unions
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: are already coming out saying this is taking too long.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: The Prime Minister's only commented on it is that work
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: is continuing on the business case and it will go
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: to cabinet in the future. So where the hell does
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: that mean? That is? But unofficially it is understood the
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: project has been dogged with problems and is increasingly seen
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: as unnecessary, costly, and worst of all, a bad idea.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, A bad idea from Stephen Joyce. From a
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: well paid consultant who knew Stephen Joyce has many good ideas,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: but maybe this one isn't so. But still, if we're
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: wanting to train new doctors and we want to train
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: them in a school, we were going to build a
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: new one, but we're not building a new one, So
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: what about raising the money the numbers? Elsewhere? Things are
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: just not happening, And it's not nice when things just
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: don't happen, because frankly, I'd like to go to a doctor,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: and when I do go to a doctor, I don't
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: want to be told that you've only got fifteen minutes,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: but in fact, let's make that ten because I'm running late.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: to News Talks it be from five am weekdays, or
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.