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DOCTORS from the UK could find plenty of work in New Zealand as the country faces a shortage of family doctors that will become a crisis without significant intervention, the Medical Association says.
The association's new report into the GP workforce had demonstrated a doctor shortage, chairwoman Tricia Briscoe said.
In 2002, there were 2917 practising family doctors - 120 fewer than the previous year and a drop of 249 from 2000. The GP workforce peaked in 1999 with 3191, after seven years of slow growth.
Dr Briscoe said the decline was alarming. If the trend continued, the situation would become critical. "If significant acrion is not taken, the GP situation will rapidly deteriorate to a major crisis, with grave results for patients."
An ageing GP population, the effects of increased numbers of women in the workforce, a reliance on overseas-trained doctors, and GPs leaving or planning to leave and not being replaced by incoming GPs were cited as reasons for the drop in doctor numbers, Dr Briscoe said.
The Medical Association was developing recommendations for the Government on how to reverse the decline in GP numbers, which would be released later this year.

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