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Speaker 1: It beggars belief these days when we report that it's

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Speaker 1: hard to make money if you're a doctor, it's hard

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Speaker 1: to make money if you have got a GP practice.

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Speaker 1: It beggars belief that we don't have enough doctors in

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Speaker 1: this country. Primary medical care is the most important care

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Speaker 1: we can have. Forget your fancy specialists, forget your rock

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Speaker 1: star surgeons. If a GP can spot and fix a

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Speaker 1: problem as it begins, then you can save your life

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Speaker 1: and you can save the nation a ton on costs

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Speaker 1: down the line. So the health of our primary health

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Speaker 1: sector should be of primary importance, but it hasn't been.

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Speaker 1: We've added a million people through immigration over the past

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Speaker 1: ten years, and we've also been creating new New Zealanders ourselves,

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Speaker 1: while our numbers of doctors per head of population is plummeted.

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Speaker 1: There's two ways to get new doctors right. One way

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Speaker 1: is to find them and import them from overseas, but

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Speaker 1: that is necessarily difficult because not every Tom Dick and

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Speaker 1: Harry who say their doctors are in fact doctors. We've

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Speaker 1: seen stories about that. The other way is to train

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Speaker 1: them ourselves, and in that area, I believe we've been

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Speaker 1: waefully short on the numbers. I do not know why

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Speaker 1: you'd think our doctor trading would increase in line of population,

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Speaker 1: but it hasn't for decades. And what about this University

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Speaker 1: of Waikato new medical school which was an election policy.

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Speaker 1: Remember it was built on top of a report completed

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Speaker 1: by Steven Joyce's consultancy firm, which is basically Stephen in

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Speaker 1: some researches, a consultancy report that was not cheap. It

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Speaker 1: was pushed by the University of Waikato. It got supported

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Speaker 1: by the people who became the government. We're supposed to

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Speaker 1: have a new medical school in the Wykato in Hamilton.

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Speaker 1: Well we are a year into the new administration and

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Speaker 1: where are we at. We've got nothing. The medical unions

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Speaker 1: are already coming out saying this is taking too long.

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Speaker 1: The Prime Minister's only commented on it is that work

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Speaker 1: is continuing on the business case and it will go

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Speaker 1: to cabinet in the future. So where the hell does

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Speaker 1: that mean? That is? But unofficially it is understood the

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Speaker 1: project has been dogged with problems and is increasingly seen

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Speaker 1: as unnecessary, costly, and worst of all, a bad idea.

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Speaker 1: I'm sorry, A bad idea from Stephen Joyce. From a

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Speaker 1: well paid consultant who knew Stephen Joyce has many good ideas,

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Speaker 1: but maybe this one isn't so. But still, if we're

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Speaker 1: wanting to train new doctors and we want to train

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Speaker 1: them in a school, we were going to build a

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Speaker 1: new one, but we're not building a new one, So

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Speaker 1: what about raising the money the numbers? Elsewhere? Things are

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Speaker 1: just not happening, And it's not nice when things just

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Speaker 1: don't happen, because frankly, I'd like to go to a doctor,

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Speaker 1: and when I do go to a doctor, I don't

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Speaker 1: want to be told that you've only got fifteen minutes,

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Speaker 1: but in fact, let's make that ten because I'm running late.

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Speaker 1: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live

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Speaker 1: to News Talks it be from five am weekdays, or

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Speaker 1: follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.