Cr Benedict Ong made the case in a notice of motion to be discussed at a Dunedin City Council meeting today.
Setting up Dunedin to benefit from the agreement could significantly reduce long waiting times for medical and specialist services, he said.
If the council agrees, it would note a shortage of practitioners was contributing to unacceptable waiting times for elective procedures and poorer health outcomes for patients.
It would also note the trade agreement ‘‘establishes new mobility pathways for skilled professionals, including occupations within specialist health services, creating a significant opportunity for New Zealand and Dunedin to attract internationally trained medical specialists’’.
Cr Ong’s notice asked that the council, through Enterprise Dunedin, ‘‘work with Health New Zealand [Te Whatu Ora], the University of Otago, Immigration New Zealand, Health Workforce New Zealand, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, relevant medical colleges and other appropriate agencies to develop opportunities to position Dunedin as New Zealand’s preferred destination for internationally trained specialist clinicians, with particular focus on opportunities arising from the New Zealand-India Free Trade Agreement’’.
The Otago Daily Times approached the Medical Council of New Zealand for comment and received a response attributed to Dr Kenneth Clark.
The free-trade agreement might create additional opportunities for employers and communities to attract skilled professionals from India, he said.
‘‘However, immigration or workforce mobility arrangements do not provide automatic registration as a doctor in New Zealand.’’
Dr Clark said the registration pathway depended on the doctor’s qualifications, specialist training, experience and proposed role in New Zealand.
Overseas-trained specialists were assessed against the standard expected of a New Zealand-trained specialist in the relevant area of medicine.
Internationally qualified doctors made an important contribution to New Zealand’s medical workforce, he said.
Decisions about where doctors were recruited, employed and deployed sat with health sector employers and relevant government and local agencies.
Asked by the ODT if he anticipated any costs in carrying out his motion, Cr Ong said he did not.
‘‘Enterprise Dunedin has annual costs of almost $12 million and there are no additional financial costs to carrying out this motion from its already massive annual recurring resources it can reallocate from.’’
In a lengthy email to council chief executive Sandy Graham, Cr Ong said India was home to one of the largest English-speaking medical workforces in the world.
Dunedin should be proactive to position itself to benefit from new opportunities arising from the free-trade agreement, he said.
Cr Ong has another notice of motion to be considered by the council today.
It relates to urging the government to reconsider scrapping a scheme that reimburses tertiary students for final-year fees.
