ABSTRACT
Australia, along with New Zealand, has played a vital role over several decades in supporting both undergraduate and graduate medical education in the Pacifi c, and it is hoped they will continue to do so. Therefore it is of particular concern that to date the medical workforces in Australia and New Zealand have been major benefi ciaries of the Fiji specialist programs that they helped to set up. It could even be argued that these programs have served as specialist training sites for these two countries. (Oman et al. 2006: 15)
Migration of SHWs has multiple consequences, from more obvious constraints on the delivery of health services and the economic costs of the loss of locally trained workers to more subtle social, political and cultural impacts. Since migrants move to improve their own livelihoods, and those of their families, they are usually the key benefi ciaries of that migration. Recipient countries benefi t from having workers who are able to fi ll gaps and shortages in the health care system. Conversely, sending countries and their populations, especially in remote areas, lose valuable skills unless these are an ‘overfl ow’ or are otherwise compensated for. Assessing the impact of all this-even indirectly-is diffi cult, and numerous anecdotes, at best relating to a particular place at a particular time, tend to take the place of reliable data.
