A new policy to fix a giant shortage of healthcare workers will only scratch the surface, according to those in the sector.
On Monday, Health Minister Andrew Little announced a raft of measures to attract workers to New Zealand - including more training, financial incentives and immigration support.
Deborah Powell, from the New Zealand Resident Doctors Association, said the announcement was a start.
"But, overall, it's a stop-gap provision - and I'm waiting for how we're going to fix the sustainability of our medical and nursing and allied scientific and technical workforces," Dr Powell told AM. "We just leap from crisis to crisis in health because we keep going back to, 'Let's just get some more [workers] from overseas.' What we need is a sustainable solution to trade and retain New Zealand practitioners."
Sarah Dalton, from the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, agreed.
"It's great to finally have some tangible responses to this massive and ongoing workforce shortage that we have been battling for years… but, as Deborah says, we already rely heavily on our overseas-trained medical and nursing workforces."
Dalton told AM host Ryan Bridge more was needed.
"We need to grow our own workforces as well," she said. "As a first step, it's OK and it's great that they're listening and we're starting to get some tangible plans that we can engage with, but unless this is the first step of many - then we're in a pickle."
ACT Party Health spokesperson Brooke van Velden said the announcement was disappointing. She also blasted Little's announcement the Government would be collaborating with television soap Shortland St to help drive offshore recruitment.
"In the midst of a global pandemic, we are desperately short of nurses. The Government is doing nothing to make New Zealand more attractive for nurses to move here, instead migrant nurses aren't eligible for residency until after two years in New Zealand," van Velden said in a statement.
"Instead of changing that, Health Minister Andrew Little says the Government is partnering with Shortland St to promote nursing as a career. You can't script something this absurd."
Little said on Monday that "the current health workforce shortages have been decades in the making" and have been made worse by COVID-19, but Monday's announced plan "removes actual cost barriers to migrants entering the health workforce while also ensuring we are training enough people locally in the long-term".
