Her remarks come after Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Waikato University and the Ministry of Health over the development of a new medical school yesterday.
“The Ministry will now work together on a robust process to make sure the model can achieve the health workforce outcomes we all know New Zealand needs," Dr Reti said.
“The MOU will enable the parties to progress with establishing the business case for a third school, as our country faces a dire shortage of Kiwi doctors."
The background section for the MOU said "this is the first step towards establishing a third medical school at the University of Waikato which will deliver more doctors committed to serving primary and community care settings and provincial and rural parts of the country".
The existing medical schools are based at the Otago and Auckland universities.
A new medical school would aim to have an initial intake of 120 students for the academic year beginning January 2027, the MOU said.
However, there is also the provision of a business case, with the onus on Waikato University to provide it.
"I would be very disappointed if this was a fait accomplis.
"The business case needs to assess the costs and benefits of establishing a new medical school against enabling the existing medical schools in Otago and Auckland.
"My understanding is that the capacity can be built at the existing medical schools ... we can act more quickly and efficiently by using what we have."
Having the third medical school go ahead might not necessarily affect student numbers at Otago, but would definitely be a "lost opportunity", she said.
During the general election campaign, Dr Reti said if elected, National would provide up to $300 million in capital to establish the third medical school if it got the tick.
University of Otago acting vice-chancellor Prof Helen Nicholson shared Ms Brooking’s concerns.
"We believe the additional medical places required for this country can potentially be provided more quickly and at significantly lower cost by investing in additional capacity at the existing medical schools.
"This in large measure because investing in the existing medical schools would leverage the significant infrastructure that already exists at those schools: not just physical infrastructure, but also the curriculum infrastructure."
Prof Nicholson said the university was supportive of the Government’s desire to increase the country’s health workforce through training more doctors in New Zealand.
"While the MOU is specifically between the Government and the University of Waikato, the MOU does provide sufficient scope for alternative options to be explored.
"Our expectation is that in order to be robust, a full cost-benefit analysis must, as a matter of necessity, include evaluating the Waikato option (with updated financials) against the alternative option of investing in additional capacity at the existing medical schools."
