Long wait for overseas GP

AUCKLAND: As a GP crisis looms across the country, a South African doctor with more than 14 years’ experience is being forced to wait one and ahalf years to sit her Kiwi medical exams.

Claire Terblanche, of Wellington, told Mike Hosking on Newstalk ZB yesterday she immigrated to New Zealand last year but cannot sit the second of two exams she has to pass until March next year.

She said the second exam only runs three times a year and each sitting has just 28 spots available.

Dr Terblanche said she passed the first academic test in February, but because of the delay in receiving her results, she missed the cut for booking stage two in November. The June sitting was filled last October, she said.

The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners’ 2017 Workplace Survey revealed 47% of GPs will retire in the next decade — 27% within the next five years.

Dr Terblanche was told the exam used to be run five times a year and ‘‘the system has got progressively worse in the last five years. But I have no idea why, and every doctor I speak to doesn’t know.’’

If she passes the New Zealand medical tests, she needs to undergo a twoyear internship, which she has already done in South Africa, before she can practise as a GP.

Dr Terblanche said it was almost impossible for an overseas doctor to find an internship and she basically needed to wait for an intern to get sick to fill their post.

‘‘All the internships with DHBs are allocated to New Zealand graduates or Australian medical graduates.

‘‘I know overseas doctors who have waited five years for an internship and by that time their New Zealand medical certificate has expired. There’s a real problem with this system.’’ — NZME