Hi Pedroso

Two matters:

1. Personally I think doing some time in the public health system, no matter which country you are in, before moving onto private practice, is broadening. You just won’t get the range of clinical exposure in the private practice. As we move more from a pure musculoskeletal focus in private practice to more of a primary care focus, I think this will mean we need to be knowledgeable about a wider range of medical conditions, disablement and preventive health measures. Whether you do this in the NHS at home or over here would make little difference as our hospital systems have more similarities than differences.

2. There is another thing you should be aware of. A few months back the government removed the full subsidy on fees paid to physios on our universal accident and injury compensation system (ACC). While we have been through this before it is having major repercussions for the way private practices work. As they start charging copayments for their services, there are less patients and those that do front up cut their treatments shorter. There will be less work around with a number of practices probably having to cut back on staff. In addition to this change in the private practice sector there appear to be less graduate positions available in the hospitals and with less work in private practice our graduates are now queuing up for jobs in the hospital system.

This has all has happened quite suddenly and with more changes imminent cutbacks in the way ACC works and less money in the district health boards (public hospitals) job vacancies may become scarce. I could be overstating the case. It is unclear how things will work yet. However our finalist students who are just about to graduate are having to work harder to find their first job with less work available. I would strongly advise you to secure a job before getting here – unless you are ok about just coming for a holiday
In contrast Australia is still looking very good for jobs for new graduates.