'We need more doctors' - Support for new Waikato medical school

New Zealand needs to be training more doctors and a new medical school will help achieve that, a senior doctors union says.

ACT Party leader David Seymour has questioned the cost-benefit analysis for a proposed new $380m medical school at Waikato University.

But Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Sarah Dalton told Morning Report the number of students in Auckland and Otago should be increased, as well as the options for a third medical school.

"We need more doctors and we need them as soon as we can get them so we need to be training more doctors here in New Zealand."

Relying on overseas trained doctors was problematic with data showing three quarters would leave New Zealand within 10 years, she said.

Dalton said one of Seymour's concerns seemed to be that it couldn't be guaranteed the people attending the new medical school would become GPs.

"There is clear evidence that shows that the greatest number of New Zealand medical graduates become GPs and actually the more doctors you train the more GPs you get, and the more hospital specialists you get.

"Now we need all of those doctors so it's a no brainer to act on the evidence says we can train more, we need to train more and we should."

ACT drew attention to the Treasury's opposition to the Waikato proposal when it said there were more affordable options.

"The Treasury does not support this Cabinet paper and the recommendation to progress to detailed business case," Treasury told the Health Ministry, according to a Cabinet committee paper two months ago.

"The cost of the project is significant and is unaffordable in the current fiscal climate.

"We do not consider that progressing with this investment pathway represents the best value-for-money."

It suggested another alternative it said was unlikely to require significant upfront capital investment - though the forecast cost of the option was blanked-out - and be quicker.

Treasury recommended the ministry ask the minister of health to seek "broader costed alternative options" to address workforce shortages.

The plans for the Waikato proposal so far have followed Treasury's guidelines on preparing business cases.

The National Party campaigned on opening a third medical school.

It was set to open in 2027 and was meant to be rurally focused, taking in 120 students a year.

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