Shaky trainees to get exam reprieve

Trainee doctors who sat an exam in Wellington after a sleepless night in the hours after the Kaikoura earthquake will be allowed to re-sit it.

Among the 38 general practitioners-in-training who sat the exam was a woman who had evacuated to higher ground overnight due to the tsunami warning prompted by the magnitude-7.8 quake that struck at 12.02am on November 14.

The 41⁄2-hour exam began at 8.30am at a hotel in Kilbirnie, in the orange tsunami zone near that suburb’s waterfront.

The New Zealand Resident Doctors’ Association (NZRDA) acted after receiving complaints from about 20 trainee GPs who took the exam that day. It labelled the decision to proceed with the exam as appalling.

The students – registered medical officers in their first year of training to be GPs – were asked to sign a waiver before the exam, stating that there were no adverse circumstances that would affect their performances.

Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (RNZCGP) chief executive Helen MorganBanda said back then that the waiver was standard, and no-one was forced to sit the exam.

She said it would have been difficult for the examiners to cancel the assessment as it involved medical professionals from around the country travelling to Wellington. Scenario actors had also been employed.

Candidates were given the option to withdraw, although doing so meant they would have to wait another year to sit the exam.

The assessment cost each trainee GP $2300 plus GST.

RNZDA national secretary Deborah Powell said at the time that the exam should have been postponed. Trainees who signed the waiver would have been influenced by a ‘‘power-imbalance.’’

Exam results are due in February. Yesterday, the RNZCGP confirmed it has decided anyone who failed it will be allowed to re-sit.

Its decision comes as , and more than 20,000 NCEA pupils have had emergency grades submitted due to the quake disruption.

An NZRDA spokesman confirmed the exam was a pass or fail assessment, rather than a graded test, so those who passed would not be disadvantaged by the resit offered to their peers who failed.

‘‘We’re disappointed regarding the actions of the college ... However, we do acknowledge the steps it has now taken with regards to the exam outcome.’’