Harriet Wilde

There are user co-payments with that.

And we have things like ACC and Pharmac and things that may not be totally reflected in the country and system that they're used to practising it.

I think that the members that are coming to join ASMS and we're the union for senior doctors and dentists, that they tend to stay for a longer time by and large.

And the ones in our survey, while it was an opt-in survey, the majority of them had been here for more than 10 years.

They're looking for a complete lifestyle transformation to build a foundation here.

There will always be a group that are

more transient and continue to look for other opportunities.

And that may be to do with their particular specialty, branch of medicine, research opportunities, things like that.

Well, I mean, if you are chasing a bit of lifestyle, I think somewhere like sunny Gisborne, beautiful Timaru, there's a major draw cards.

And certainly the health system does put a lot of effort into emphasising the lifestyle factors that may be a little bit more accessible outside of the main centres.

But having said that, the conditions in which we are requiring doctors to work, and that includes things like being on call frequently after hours and long hours in clinic, may mean that some of those lifestyle factors are less readily available when people do arrive here.

Well, we're losing both New Zealand graduates and international medical graduates.

And in our work, we know that Big Sunny Spot Australia is the main intended target.

Many of the doctor's

that have responded to our survey about where they would go if they were to leave, Australia is by and large the major drawcard.

The ones that have talked about going to the US or to Europe tend to be from those areas to begin with.

And one of the major challenges for international medical graduates is simply the distance back to home and family overseas.

We would be even more on our knees than we already are.

We did a survey of our clinical directors last year which calculated an unmet need vacancy rate of 32%.

So if we were staffed to the extent that we could enable doctors...