News & Views
Dr Susie Carswell contacted Tonix Health Recruitment in August 2004, looking to come over to New Zealand in 2005 as a Senor House Office. Linda Sevier, a director of Tonix, kept in email and phone contact, and even met Susie in London (Susie flew down from Scotland for the interview) in March.
From there the plan developed for Susie and her friend Eva, of coming to New Zealand. Both doctors wanted to work in Christchurch, a mid sized city in the South Island. They felt was a good central part of the country with good-sized hospitals.
Linda organised positions as Senior House Officers in Obstetrics &Gynaecology for Eva and Detoxification & Forensic Mental Health for Susie, whose goal is to be a GP. With their job offers, applying for registration with the New Zealand Medical Council was merely a matter of submitting all the correct documentation.
Then it is was the fun part. Susie and Eva decided to apply for a working holiday visa, and include working in New Zealand as part of a round the world working holiday (working in New Zealand and holidaying everywhere else!) They bought a ticket taking them to Hong Kong and Melbourne on their way to New Zealand. When their contract finishes in New Zealand, they continue on their journey, having 10 days in Fiji, and 2 weeks each in Chile, Argentina and Rio de Janeiro. Then back to the reality of finding a position in the UK.
Within two weeks of arriving in Christchurch, Susie and Eva have a house to rent, a car and two bikes. They have found everyone at work really helpful and full of advice. There was a slight hitch with the money machine eating Susie’s new bankcard, but everything has slotted into place.
Susie feels that her position is comparable in responsibility to her roles at home and the terminology is much the same. She was concerned that there may be different drugs prescribed, but this too was very familiar. Other things such as equipment and computer systems are slightly different, but easy to pick up. Financially Susie thinks it is much the same as in Scotland, maybe a slightly lower salary, but feels the cost of living is cheaper.
On hindsight, Susie would recommend anyone coming over to have about 10 days to get settled and see a bit of the country before starting, and to have enough capital to buy a car and organise the house rental. She said she found working through an agency much easier as she was so busy with work in Scotland. She said it was hard to apply for vacancies and work through the Medical Council and visas while working long hours in A&E.
Both doctors have been skiing, taken the scenic train trip to the West Coast and have very quickly adapted to the pleasures of life in New Zealand. Coming in August means they have a whole summer ahead of them and a warm Southern Hemisphere Christmas to look forward to.
