New Zealand, after all, is desperate for more doctors. What is more, the proposed school based at the University of Waikato would emphasise community-focused training.
It would accept graduates only — generally a little older and more mature — and have a rural emphasis. The four-year programme would include one at the university and three in regional centres, the suggestion being that these graduates would be more likely to work permanently outside the main cities.
National calls it a more modern approach to doctor training.
It could, apparently, start from 2027. Supposedly, only $380 million in capital would be required, an amount which seems grossly underestimated in this era of high and rising building costs. The University of Waikato would contribute $100 million.
Money is the first main issue. The funds to establish and then run a third medical school are hard to justify when health and universities are desperate for resources.
There are also important questions over whether this third medical school could actually increase the capacity to train doctors, in addition to National’s plan to also add 50 more places across the Otago and Auckland medical schools.
Finding placements and enough people willing and able to supervise and train students and house officers have long been a system pinch point.
Health Minister Ayesha Verrall responded to last week’s announcement by saying Cabinet had been advised that a new school would lead to a reduction in places available to other medical schools.
While the new school would be geared towards general practice and rural training, the current medical schools already struggle to secure GP placements.
National took up a similar proposal in 2016. This was cancelled two years later by Labour.
There are further doubts about where the staff for the new medical school would come from, and whether a large proportion of the graduates would, as claimed, choose general practice.
Otago already has been stressing the importance of rural health. It has a department of general practice and rural health, and a rural immersion programme is available for fifth-year medical students.
There are, as well, preferential entry options for students from rural areas, alongside the Māori, indigenous Pacific, socio-economic and refugee categories.
Otago accepts a substantial number of graduates from other disciplines as does Auckland. This could be boosted further.
Auckland has its own rural preference and a clinical school in Hamilton.
Auckland, and especially Otago, have been relatively muted in their criticisms of National’s proposal compared to 2016. Then, the third medical school plan was called an "expensive folly" from Auckland and "disruptive and costly" from Dunedin.
Surely, it makes more sense to steadily build on what is already established. Labour last month announced extra places, beginning next year. This brings the number of domestic places each year at Otago to 302.
The trainees are split between being based in Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin following two years in Dunedin after the intermediate year in the city.
The acting dean of the Otago school, Prof Tim Wilkinson, said the university had the capacity to train more students and would be ready to do so from 2025. He added, however, that co-operation with health providers was needed for adequate access to clinical training in the community.
All the structures are in place and steady increases at Otago (including Wellington and Christchurch) and Auckland make much more sense.
National’s plan is a blatant appeal in election year for votes in New Zealand’s fourth-largest metropolitan area, Hamilton. While it might on casual examination seem a positive development, the practical and cost consequences tell a different story.
Meanwhile, National does not seem any less keen than Labour on funding the interprofessional learning centre at the new Dunedin hospital.
That would have been more sensible, and cheaper, than a whole new medical school.
