Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says work is underway to ensure medical student placements will not be affected as numbers of doctors in training increase.
The Government has announced funding for an extra 25 places next year that will be shared between the two existing medical schools at Auckland and Otago universities.
Last July, National also announced funding during the election campaign for a third medical school at the University of Waikato.
Both Auckland and Otago universities are long-time opponents of a third medical school.
The cost of establishing the school was estimated at $380m and a business case is now underway.
On Thursday, a report carried out by PWC and commissioned by Auckland and Otago universities raised questions about whether a third medical school was cost-effective and better outcomes could be delivered by the two existing medical schools.
The report also states workplace capacity across the sector for student placements is already under pressure and it’s increasingly difficult to increase placement positions.
However General Practice NZ chairman Dr Bryan Betty said capacity has long been an issue and an urgent need for more locally trained doctors means challenges and problems must be worked through and solved.
“We need to look at the capacity within hospitals. We need to think about flexibility,” Dr Betty said.
“Maybe other post-graduate pathways, which may be through general practice, which is very short of doctors at the moment.”
Dr Kyle Eggleton is a rural GP in Northland and also administrates a placement programme for Auckland University.
He said there is “enormous complexity in running medical programmes, including rural placements”.
“One of the unintended consequences that you have to manage is that as you’re increasing placements, you’re also displacing students who come from an urban cohort from experiencing a rural placement.”
Reti said the Government is aware of concerns and that work is underway to address them.
“What we look to do with clinical placements is collaborate across the whole health enterprise,” he said.
“Across all of Health NZ is how we look to distribute those placements.”
