The problem was raised at the NZ Association of General Surgeons' conference at the weekend. (file image) Photo: 123RF
Surgeons say the country is missing out on keeping some of its best-trained new specialists because they cannot get jobs here.
NZ Association of General Surgeons president Vanessa Blair said many were instead taking up jobs overseas which could mean they were lost to the country's health system forever.
That was against a backdrop of huge demand for operations and tens of thousands of people waiting longer than they should for care.
The problem related to new consultant general surgeons.
Only about 15 were taken on for the national training programme each year, but that training took several years and by the time they finished there were sometimes not many jobs.
At the moment, there were very few positions in public health, Dr Blair said.
"Our existing general specialist surgery trainees are anxious and worried about what jobs will be there for them in two to three to four years' time."
The problem was raised at the association's conference at the weekend, with many surgeons seeing it as one of the big priorities to sort out, Dr Blair said.
"We would like to see much better transparency about that for our trainees, so they know where the jobs are, and that Te Whatu Ora across the country has some sort of handle on workforce planning across the country for surgeons, for the whole sector actually."
Dr Blair worried there were not sufficient jobs, yet the association was still being asked to keep training surgeons.
There was no way to see even how many vacancies there were nationally, and better data was needed, she said.
Some general surgeons who had gone overseas to do some of their specialist training in areas such as breast, colorectal or bariatric care, wanted to come back, but they could not find work here, she said.