- Hon Simeon Brown
- Hon Matt Doocey
The West Coast will benefit from a stronger, home-grown rural health workforce, with a newly coordinated rural hospital medicine and specialist GP training programme officially starting today, Health Minister Simeon Brown and Associate Health Minister Matt Doocey say.
"The programme builds on long-standing local training and is now formally structured and scaled to grow more rural generalists for the region - a major milestone for the West Coast," Mr Brown says.
"It means that after 20 years of averaging just two to three registrars, the Coast will now host around eight to ten. This will help build a stronger, more stable, home-grown rural workforce for the region.
"We are committed to strengthening New Zealand's health workforce, with rural health a key priority. In rural areas where access to specialist services is limited, generalist doctors who can work flexibly across multiple disciplines play an essential role."
There has been strong interest from both local and overseas applicants. Placements will run for six to twelve months and include high-quality supervision, stable rosters, housing assistance, and clear roles after training.
"The aim is to support trainees to stay on the Coast. When young doctors build long-term relationships with the communities they serve, they are more likely to remain," Mr Brown says.
Mr Doocey says the new programme builds on a strong tradition of local training, with many of the Coast's current rural generalists and specialist GPs having trained in the region.
"Achieving accreditation in October 2024 to deliver Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) training was a crucial milestone. It meant recruitment of New Zealand and Australian graduates could begin while the programme that is launching today was being developed.
"Accreditation also required demonstrating safe supervision ratios, an appropriate case mix, after-hours support, a robust curriculum structure, and strong quality systems, requirements the West Coast successfully met.
"A valued and flexible rural health workforce is a core priority of the National Rural Health Strategy, and training rural generalists is central to achieving that. All New Zealanders should be able to access healthcare when they need it, no matter where they live, including the one in five Kiwis in rural communities.
"This programme is an important step in ensuring the West Coast has a sustainable, home-grown health workforce that can meet the needs of its communities now and into the future," Mr Doocey says.
