Senior hospital doctors have heard that the loss of New Zealand-trained doctors to Australia has slowed dramatically.
Auckland University Medical School head John Fraser made the comment in an address to members of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists in Wellington on Friday.
Professor Fraser told the conference the loss of doctors reached a peak of 450 in 2007.
He did not have a current figure for the outward flow of New Zealand doctors, but said it was dramatically less, at about a tenth of what it once was.
But the union said that it disagrees that the fall in numbers has been dramatic.
Professor Fraser also said Auckland and Otago universities have approval to lift their medical student intake to 300 students from next year over the next five years.
