Jobs for Nurses in New Zealand : Jobs for Doctors in New Zealand

I initially looked to work in Australia at a teaching hospital in New South Wales. They seemed very enthusiastic, but were pretty hopeless in helping with visas and personnel issues, but kept persuading me not to look elsewhere. Ten weeks before I was due to arrive, having organised a house rental, flight, schooling, etc, they calmly told me that because of a financial crisis it would no longer be possible! We were all absolutely horrified. Not only had they led us “up a gum tree” continuously for 9 months, but they had no qualms about simply dropping us !!! when they knew that I had organised a locum for my post in the UK, rented out our house, rented a house in Australia, paid for the flight, etc, etc. They reassured me that it had nothing to do with England winning the rugby World Cup in Sydney, nor, indeed, England regaining the Ashes that summer...personally I have my doubts!

So, I contacted Accent Health Recruitment in a bit of a panic this time with only a matter of weeks to go. She rapidly found 2 or possibly 3 posts and within 10 days I was sitting in a small cottage in Cornwall on holiday listening to the seagulls and the waves and undergoing my first job interview for 22 years – this time by phone from Timaru in the South Island of New Zealand. How refreshing it was, as well, to have an interview where people actually asked relevant questions and tried to find out not only about my experience, but what I was really like! None of this politically correct list of standardised questions that we are bound by currently in the UK, which are completely worthless in trying to discriminate between candidates.

We still went to Australia because we had paid a down payment for 3 weeks on the house rental and enjoyed a holiday with friends before flying to Christchurch. I was amazed at how smoothly the preparations had gone. Accent Health prepared the way most efficiently for visa applications, health clearance and all the other tick boxes that we need to go through. The contrast with the Australian experience could not have been greater, you actually felt that they wanted to help you and smooth the way as much as possible. On reflection, of course, that is exactly what should happen in any case, but sadly this is not always the way it turns out. A rental car was waiting for the tired family at the airport and we had a lovely sunny evening journey to Timaru having first had all my documents carefully checked by the Department of Health associate in Christchurch – once again, easy directions to follow and the way had been prepared carefully for me.

We all had a wonderful 7 months in Timaru – the job was interesting and very different to what I am used to and my family loved it – in fact I am the devil incarnate for coming back to the UK...but that’s another story. Perhaps the most impressive thing about Accent Health was not only the way everything was made easy for us all, but also the nice little touches including some New Zealand temptations in the post in England several weeks before we left (biros, cards, stickers for the children and New Zealand sweets!). On arrival we were also greeted with more goodies in a bag, including coffee, wine, sweets, etc, which made us feel very welcome and wanted. These attitudes make all the difference when one is undertaking such a massive change in one’s career and to one’s family life and it seems such a shame that those lessons haven’t managed to cross the Tasman Sea. If some of those early canoeists had struggled on across the Tasman Sea I wonder if attitudes would be different today – an easier option would be for Accent Health Recruitment to set up a Sydney office!

Accent Case Studies:

John Harvey, Respiratory Consultant from the United Kingdom