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Speaker 1: So it's no secret to anyone that we don't have

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Speaker 1: enough doctors in this country. Recent policy moves to attract

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Speaker 1: more qualified overseas doctors have been eagerly received, as have

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Speaker 1: directives to increase the number of doctors we train locally,

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Speaker 1: and the government's decision to fund another fifty medical school

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Speaker 1: places from next year, which will increase the cap to

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Speaker 1: six hundred and thirty nine first year students, was well

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Speaker 1: received too. But here's my question, what is the point

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Speaker 1: of trading more doctors if we don't have jobs for them.

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Speaker 1: Medical Council data shows that thirty percent of medical graduates

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Speaker 1: leave the country within ten years. They leave because Health

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Speaker 1: New Zealand do not fund enough jobs. The jobs they

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Speaker 1: do fund a lowly play paid and future prospects are

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Speaker 1: limited except for a talent of view. They get paid

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Speaker 1: better overseas and they can pay off the student loan faster,

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Speaker 1: and it all starts from day one after they've trained.

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Speaker 1: Each year, Health New Zealand fails to fund internships for

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Speaker 1: twenty five to thirty graduates, forcing them to look overseas.

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Speaker 1: They've done everything, but there's absolutely no job there for them.

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Speaker 1: Some sure, we're overseas students, but they've spent seven years here.

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Speaker 1: They'd like to say if the prospects look good, but

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Speaker 1: the prospects aren't. Now we've trained these guys, and all

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Speaker 1: tertiary education is partially subsidized by you and I the taxpayer.

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Speaker 1: What is the point of spending taxpayers money training doctors

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Speaker 1: if to save taxpayers money, we don't offer them a

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Speaker 1: career path after their studies. And so how about this

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Speaker 1: for a radical idea. The government now wants to fund

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Speaker 1: training for six hundred and thirty nine doctors next year,

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Speaker 1: why not also fund six hundred and thirty nine internships,

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Speaker 1: and if any of them don't want to stay, we

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Speaker 1: use that excess funding to pay the guys who do

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Speaker 1: want to stay a little bit more. Because to fund

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Speaker 1: training of doctors and then refuse to fund their jobs

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Speaker 1: after they've graduated, to me, is wasteful spending. And we

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Speaker 1: all know how this government feels about wasteful spending. For

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Speaker 1: more from Early edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to

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Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio.