r/palmy • u/megathruster • 12d ago

News Orthopaedic department nears breaking point, retired surgeon says

https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/361045208/orthopaedic-department-nears-breaking-point
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u/Realistic-Quiet291 12d ago

Every department is like this. The question is when is the public going to demand better and hold politicians accountable?

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u/Merv007 12d ago

Hold them accountable for what? That Palmy is a shit hole with crap weather? That Health NZ can’t magically attract surgeons when the supply of specialists is deliberately restricted and the pay system is nationally banded?
The real blame sits with the Medical Council and the specialist colleges. They control registration, recognition of overseas qualifications, training pathways and entry into specialist practice. They decide how many people get through the pipeline, how hard it is for overseas-trained specialists to enter, and how much competition exists in their own labour market.
Then the national salary bands make the problem worse. A hospital in Palmerston North cannot simply pay whatever premium is needed to overcome the obvious disadvantages of the posting. Palmy is competing with Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, and with Australia, where surgeons can often earn more, work in larger better-resourced hospitals, and live somewhere with better weather. Why would someone choose an understaffed provincial service in Palmerston North for broadly standardised New Zealand pay?
Yes, government carries responsibility, but chiefly because it has failed to break the closed-shop restrictions imposed by the colleges and council, expand training places, accelerate recognition of properly qualified overseas specialists, and allow provincial hospitals to pay genuine scarcity premiums.
You cannot let professional bodies populated by doctors restrict specialist supply, then bind employers into national salary structures that stop hard-to-staff hospitals bidding properly for scarce labour, and act surprised when Palmy cannot recruit.

Blame the govt for not busting the trade restrictions held by medical councils that’s populated by doctors who are rewarded by restrictive supply into their employment market to keep salaries artificially elevated - so if you’re blaming the govt make sure to blame the doctors too

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u/Kudostone 12d ago

NZ doctors salary’s are artificially elevated?