The Government today announced details of a scheme to voluntarily bond health professionals, teachers and veterinarians.
Under the policy, students could opt to be bonded for five years to work in hard-to-staff locations and disciplines and in return get loan repayments, or cash if they didn't have a loan.
The first payout would not be given until participants had been in the scheme three years. The final two years would be paid out annually.
About 100 doctors and 250 midwives and nurses were expected to take up the scheme in its first year with similar numbers added annually.
The figure for teachers was 1800 in the first wave with 450 a year eligible after that.
Several hundred vets were expected to take it up.
Doctors would get $15,873 a year; midwives $5224 and nurses $4229. Teachers would get before tax payments of $3500 a year and veterinarians would qualify for $11,000 a year.
All payments were taxable.
Health Minister Tony Ryall said the scheme would encourage young health professionals to stay in New Zealand which would help deal with a "desperate" shortage.
There were high vacancy rates in parts of the country and positions took a long time to fill. That led to a reliance on expensive locums, Mr Ryall said.
"This often means longer waiting times for treatment compared to other services or communities and a great deal of stress on other health professionals.
"This is a first tangible step to helping keep our own front line clinical doctors, nurses and midwives, which we have trained specifically to care for kiwis, to work in the country that trained them."
Education Minister Anne Tolley said the teacher scheme would help deal with graduate shortages.
"This scheme will assist in attracting teachers to schools that have had problems finding and keeping staff, and will boost numbers in subjects where there have been shortages," she said.
Subjects covered by the scheme included chemistry, physics, mathematics and Maori language.
Agriculture Minister David Carter said the scheme would encourage vets to remain in practice and rural areas would benefit from having vets settle and become part of the community.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and vet organisations would see if any changes were needed to the scheme.
"This scheme will adapt to meet the changing needs of New Zealand's rural communities. The areas of greatest need may shift over time and we need to reflect that," he said.
Key facts:
Under the scheme students can opt to be bonded for five years and in return get loan repayments, or cash if they did not have a loan. The first payout would not be given until they had been in the scheme three years. The final two years would be paid out annually.
Health professionals.
* Student loan debt write offs and cash incentives for doctor, nurse and midwife graduates who work in areas with critical shortages.
* 100 doctors and 250 midwives and nurses expected to take up scheme in its first year with similar numbers added annually.
* A transition phase will allow graduates who have graduated since 2005 to be included. Doctors who graduated last year would have to work in hard-to-staff hospitals for two years and in the third year a hard-to-staff specialty; training for that could be done elsewhere than an area covered by the scheme.
* Doctors would get $15,873 a year before tax, midwives $5224 and nurses $4229.
* The scheme would cost $7 million in 2011-12 and $10 million a year after that.
* Health professionals are needed most in provincial and rural areas. Midwives are also needed in Auckland and Wellington.
Doctor specialties required are GPs, general surgeons, internal medicine physicians, psychiatry and pathology.
Nurses specialties needed are theatre, intensive care and cardiothoracic.
Teachers:
* 1800 teachers are expected to take up the scheme in the first year and 450 a year will be eligible after that.
* Teachers will be paid $3500 a year if they work in identified schools or subjects. It will go to pay student loans or cash for those who do not have that debt.
* The scheme will apply to the more 380 either decile 1 or isolated schools and to certain subjects like chemistry, physics, mathematics and Maori language. There are more than 380 schools that are decile 1 or are isolated.
* The scheme is expected to cost $19m over three years from 2011-12 when the first payments are made.
Veterinarians
* Vets in the scheme will get $11,000 a year before tax.
* It is targeted for vets in livestock industries.
* Regions targeted are rural Gisborne, Wairoa, Central Hawkes Bay, Tararua, Buller, Grey and Westland, Southland and Gore.
* The scheme is expected to cost $1.32m in 2012 and $1.76m in 2014.
* About 40 vets were initially expected to participate.
