Physican (anesthesia) salary in Australia/NZ?

[beachdude]

I'm currently a resident in the US for anesthesia and am thinking about working in Oz/NZ for a couple of months on a locum basis....

Does anyone know roughly how much docs get paid in those countries??
I've heard its around 75 000$/year - but that seems quite low compared to the US

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[FlindersGrad]

Locum positions in Australia pay very well. The $75K/year is along the line of an anesthesia resident (not a consultant or locum). I think you will be surprised when you find out how much you can make as a locum. The only down side is: the jobs tend to be short (several weeks), and they are generally in very small towns. However, start checking with the placement agency, you may be able to find a longer placement.

 

[neutropenic]

It is very hard to get salary data here in Australia. They don't tend to publish this kind of information as much as in the US. Physicians generally make less than they do in the US but I don't think the gap is anywhere nar as bad the figure you suggest. As a rough benchmark, I believe that GPs tend to make around $A 150k and I would expect that a specialty like anesthesiology would pay more. There are a bunch of placement agencies that specialize in placing locums in Australia (you can find them by doing a search on the net). I am sure that they can give you a good idea of the going locum rate.

That is still surprisingly low. First year anesthesia attendings (after post graduate year 4) have been getting job offers of >US$250,000 per annum with partners typically making US$400,000-$500,000 per annum and more.

Primary care pays much less though but hospitalists in my area still make around US$200k starting.