Communication for General Practices and Doctors regarding Te Whatu Ora's International Recruitment Campaign  Recently Hauora Taiwhenua, supported by GPNZ, successfully advocated for a financial relocation incentive for international General Practitioners coming to work long-term in rural practices throughout New Zealand, with Te Whatu Ora.   Rural relocation funding was initially only available to support the recruitment of international General Practitioners applying to work in rural primary care practices, which excluded those working in community-owned rural hospitals. 

We met with Cara Baddington, a Wellington-based Senior Lecturer at the School of Midwifery, Otago Polytechnic, to hear about her experience responding to the need for locum support in Hastings, post-Cyclone Gabrielle. Her story shares with us the community's resilience and the power of collaboration in times of crisis.

A dozen of Aotearoa New Zealand’s leading primary, community, and telehealth care organisations have come together, calling on political parties to commit to pay parity for their nursing and health care workers. “Collectively we represent services that support New Zealanders from cradle to grave. We’ve come together for the first time because we fear communities are missing out on critical health care,” says Fiona Kingsford, chief executive, Whānau Āwhina Plunket. 

It is safe to say that our five-day journey through schools and medical practices across the Northland region has etched profound impressions upon us, as we reflect on our drive to contribute to the enhancement of rural healthcare in our respective fields in the near future. Our week began with a three-hour drive up to Springbank school in Kerikeri, with three sessions including almost 100 students that day. From early on we were left impressed by their health knowledge (which we considered to be advanced at a high-school level) and their willingness to participate and learn.

The number of medical students spending a full year working in a rural or regional community is set to swell, thanks to new funding from Te Whatu Ora. More than 35 trainee doctors will be able to spend a year working in rural communities in 2024, due to a funding boost from Te Whatu Ora aimed at tackling the shortage of rural doctors.