An Aotearoa New Zealand health workforce recruiting agency is fielding calls from senior US doctors who say they can no longer live in their own country.

Accent Health Recruitment has been flooded with inquiries from US doctors wanting to come to New Zealand following the US Supreme Court’s decision overturning abortion rights last Friday.

The ruling has made access to abortions all but impossible in at least 18 states.

Accent Health Recruitment managing director Prudence Thomson said she normally got about 30 inquiries a day but that had doubled since the ruling.

“The emotion and frustration attached to their email, you could just feel it. They’re saying, ‘we can no longer live in this country, we need to come, will you have us in New Zealand?’

“It was quite an emotional tug, as far as of people really wanting to leave and throwing their hands in the air.”

Thomson said most inquiries were from GPs and obstetricians.

‘A spike in inquiries’
“There has been quite a spike in inquiries from them — they’re really passionate about looking after their patients and now they no longer are able to provide the healthcare they want,” she said.

“So they want to come to New Zealand to practise, which is good for New Zealand.”

Thomson said while it was sad these health workers felt forced morally to leave, it would help this country’s health worker “crisis”.

However, she said it would take at least six months before the American health professionals could work in New Zealand.

“Every medical professional needs to get their qualifications verified to come to New Zealand and that takes from three to six months.

“While we want to speed it up we don’t want to cut corners because in a crisis that’s when the weaknesses will be exposed and that’s when the people who want to commit identity fraud could get through.”

However, she said it should still give the chronically understaffed health sector some hope that help was coming.

Messaging about jobs
US nurse McKenzie Mills recently moved to New Zealand and said former colleagues had been messaging her about jobs ever since the US Supreme Court ruled against abortion.

She said she was heartbroken and angry after the ruling.

However, she said she was even more sure now that her decision to move to New Zealand in January was the right one.

“I take care of people and it just really broke my heart that there is so much health care that will be denied to millions of women.”

Mills said she felt like she had “escaped” her own country as a result of the ruling.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Papua New Guinea’s Supreme Court has stayed a court order nullifying the appointment of David Manning as Commissioner of Police.

Manning, who was ordered to vacate his office by noon today, is also the country’s Pandemic Response Controller.

The order was handed down by Justice David Cannings in the National Court last Friday in response to an application for a judicial review of Manning’s appointment filed by former senior police officers Sylvester Kalaut and Fred Yakasa.

Both men had failed in an application for the position of police commissioner in competition with Manning in 2019.

Justice Cannings ruled that Manning’s appointment was wrong because he did not have a tertiary qualification as required for the parallel post of Secretary to the Police Department.

Yesterday, Justice Derek Hartshorn granted the stay order sought by lawyer Troy Mileng of the Solicitor-General’s office representing the state and lawyer Derek Wood representing Manning pending the determination of an appeal against Justice Cannings’ decision.

Justice Hartshorn said there was an arguable case on the separation of the two positions of commissioner and secretary of police which Manning was holding.

Ruling accepted
Manning will remain police commissioner in the meantime because of the stay order.

Outside court, Kalaut and Yakasa yesterday accepted the decision by Supreme Court judge Justice Hartshorn.

Police Minister Bryan Kramer wrote a strong defence of Manning’s appointment on his Facebook blog this week, saying that due process had been followed and none of the six police commissioners since a law change in 2003 had had a tertiary degree.

RNZ Pacific reports that in May 2020 Sylvester Kalaut was arrested by anti-fraud detectives within the PNG police force and charged with one count of abuse of office, and one count of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Karo Jesse is a reporter for The National. Asia Pacific Report republishes The National reports with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz