The New Zealand Medical Workforce in 2013 and 2014

The New Zealand Medical Workforce in 2013 and 2014 – Number of Māori doctors likely to increase

The Medical Council of New Zealand today released The New Zealand Medical Workforce in 2013 and 2014 survey results.

Council Chairman, Mr Andrew Connolly said today a quick review of the statistics showed the size of the medical workforce as 15, 366 in 2014 or approximately 340 doctors for every 100,000 people.

The number of international medical graduates (42 percent of the medical workforce), women in the workforce (42.4 percent of the medical workforce) and age of doctors (45.7 years) increased continuing the trend of past years.

Registration data show that the number of practising doctors increased by 2.7 percent in 2014 from 14,964 to 15,366. This change compares with increases of 1.8 percent in 2013 and 2.6 percent in 2012.

Mr Connolly said the Council’s survey was significant because of the increase in the number of doctors who identify themselves as Māori.

The proportion of doctors who identified themselves as Māori increased to 3.2 percent from 2.7 percent in 2013 and the proportion of Pasifika doctors increased to 2.0 percent.

Both Māori and Pasifika doctors continue to be noticeably under-represented compared to the proportion of the population who identify as Māori or Pasifika. Chinese are represented about the same in the medical workforce as they are within the New Zealand population and Indian are more highly represented in the medical workforce compared with the proportion of Indians in the New Zealand population.

Three-quarters of doctors identifying as New Zealand European / Pākehā reported working either as a secondary or tertiary care specialist (44 percent) or general practitioner (31 percent) *at their main work site compared with 51 percent of doctors identifying as Māori and 52 percent of doctors identifying as Pasifika.

Doctors identifying as New Zealand Māori made up 3.2 percent of all doctors, but were more highly represented amongst house officers (5.4 percent) and registrars (4 percent). This suggests that although Māori are currently underrepresented amongst specialists (2 percent), this is likely to change in the future as those house officers and registrars advance into more senior positions within the workforce.

Mr Connolly says this bodes well for Māori and is in line with the Council’s position of addressing issues of inequity Māori face in the health system.

‘Māori doctors play a key role in breaking down the barriers experienced by Māori patients in accessing the health system. This continues with today’s Māori medical students and doctors and extends far beyond any one clinical consultation. Their leadership, knowledge and commitment are critically important in building cultural competence throughout the profession and to addressing Māori health inequity.

‘We need to make this a priority in order to overcome historical and current disparities in this regard.

‘It is encouraging to see that in 2015, for the first time, demographic proportionality has been achieved, with the number of Māori students entering medical school proportionate to the Māori population.’

*The results of The New Zealand Medical Workforce in 2013 and 2014 survey are based on data self-reported by doctors. For the purposes of registration, general practice is a specialist scope of practice. However, for the purposes of the survey, specialist and general practitioner are recorded in separate categories to aid analysis and interpretation of the data

ENDS

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