Rural General Practice I Rural GP | Rural Primary Care

Te Whare Taumata o Tākutatanga Taiwhenua is the nationally recognised and respected unified voice for Rural General Practice in the rural communities we care for. We carry forward the representation of General Practice membership of the Rural General Practice Network into Hauora Taiwhenua.

About Us

We advocate for, promote, maintain, and support the critical components of Rural General Practice teams including:

Actively contributing to equitable access to Health and Disability Services for all rural New Zealanders, and in particular, rural Māori
Sustainable funding and service models
Healthy and supportive working conditions, and
Training and education of the current and future rural primary care workforce.

We provide and sustain a sense of connectivity across Rural General Practice teams and their families, that enables peer-to-peer and pastoral support for members and their families. Our Chapter provides rurally focused clinical expertise and advice to Hauora Taiwhenua Management, Council and other Chapters in matters of both organisational and government policies and their implementation.

We support the National PRIME Committee and our members who represent the interests of all PRIME providers on the committee by collaborating with rural communities and wider rural provider-associated organisations including other Chapters of Hauora Taiwhenua, to achieve rurally focused and researched health and wellbeing outcomes.

Rural General Practice Stocktake 2024

This is the second year Hauora Taiwhenua has conducted a survey of Rural General Practices to quantify and better understand their current operational status, issues and morale. Our goal is to develop a repository of sector-informed data that monitors key indicators vital to rural general practice and track changes to them over time.

Building on insights from our first survey last year, we refined our methodology for collecting and analysing response data this year. This refinement enhances our ability to produce multi-year data and enable comparisons between rural general practice indicators and urban or national data produced by other organisations.

Consequently, in this second year, we have included only a few indicators showing results from both surveys. We are optimistic that with high response rates, support from Health NZ in providing system-level data, and the University of Otago’s Geographic Classification for Health (GCH), the range of indicators that we can report on a multi-year basis will expand.

This year’s survey achieved a 54% response rate, with 103 out of 190 rural general practices classified as ‘rural’ under the Primary Health Organisation Service Agreement (PHOSA) participating. Survey respondents proportionally represent the GCH R1-R3 areas, mirroring the population distribution in each category. Collectively, their registered patients account for 46% of the rural population.

Where applicable, survey results have been extrapolated to provide an indication of the national perspective.

To view the full results, click here:

Executive Committee

Dr Grahame Jelley

Co-Chair

Dr Grahame Jelley is the former Northern North Island representative on the New Zealand Rural General Practice Network Board.

Having completed my secondary education in Zimbabwe, I qualified from the University of Cape Town in South Africa in 1983. I have worked as a Rural Practitioner for 30 years in mission hospital service, regional rural hospital service in South Africa, large corporate medical services and in solo general practice in Zimbabwe. Arriving in New Zealand in 2000 as a DHB employed General Practitioner in Westport, the Bay of Plenty in 2004 and Kerikeri Northland since 2014. I have served as a volunteer GP in the Cook Islands at Aitutaki Base Hospital. I have been actively involved with the Eastern Bay of Plenty PHO and Primary Health Alliance and subsequently te tai Tokerau PHO Board. I have more recently mixed my GP work with Clinical Advisor to Planning and Funding with the Bay of Plenty DHB, clinical Directore Te Tai Tokerau PHO and most recently clinical Advisor Mahitahi Hauora Primary Health Entity.

I am married to Renene a nurse and have two children Courtney and a son Brendan and more recently our first mokopuna Preston. I love sailing and other outdoor activities. I continue to enjoy the opportunities afforded to me through to contributing positively to the Board of the RGPN and the advocacy for wider rural General Practice teams and their communities.

Gemma Hutton

Co-Chair

My name is Gemma Hutton, I am a Nurse Practitioner in Twizel and continue to provide Telehealth/Locum support for the West Coast which was the area where I started my rural journey.

The majority of my career has been in rural health. I was a former board member of RGPN and I remain involved in advocating for rural health within my local area.

Dr Jo Scott-Jones

Medical Director and Rural GP Pinnacle MHN and Ōpotiki

Michelle Meenagh

Dr Geraldine Trevella

Rural General Practitioner North Canterbury

I grew up in a village in England where my parents were both doctors and together provided 24 hour cover in their country general practice. My early experiences immersed me in medicine, especially as for the first ten years of my life our family lived in a two-storey house with the surgery on the ground floor. Thus, from an early age I observed the art and science of medicine, and the special relationship that doctors had with their patients in a rural setting.

I trained at St Batholomew’s Hospital in London and later moved to New Zealand to do the GP training scheme. I enjoyed the then compulsory 4-month rural attachment then most of the three placements for the year, but at the time the barrier of on call commitments was too great for a young female GP with children and a husband who worked in town to pursue the option of continuing work in this sector. After running a solo practice in Christchurch for many years I have returned to my roots and become a rural GP in North Canterbury. I have lived on a 30-acre lifestyle block near Rangiora for 25 years and am currently the clinical leader at Amberley Medical Centre.

I have a passion for teaching and encouraging medical students and registrars to consider the benefits for themselves and their patients to working in the rural sector. I have a clear understanding of past and current barriers for rural GPs and a desire to use my skills and experience to work towards finding solutions to these.

Dr Robin Baird

Rural General Practitioner Te Kauwhata

Dr Robin Baird is a rural GP working in Te Kauwhata, North Waikato. Born and raised in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Dr Baird trained in Edinburgh and Scottish Borders. He has been in New Zealand now for 10 years. He enjoys the professional range afforded by rural practice (clinics in aged-care centre, college, corrections facility) and the opportunity to collaborate with other providers to deliver quality health service. He works with Pinnacle PHO in a GP leader role and volunteers on Board of local Community House. His interests include clinical governance, lifestyle medicine, food, tramping, travel and bridge. He appreciates the sense of welcome he has had arriving in Aotearoa and is excited at the opportunity to lend some support to rural general practice.

Rural Telehealth Service Consultation

Rural Telehealth Service Consultation July 22

Testimonials / Whakaaturanga

This is your opportunity to be part of a strong advocacy voice for Rural General Practice which is backed up by the entire rural team including rural communities and  in partnership with Māori. We know that there are changes and challenges ahead, perhaps more now than ever before. Having been on NZRGPN Board for the last 12 years and still working as a rural GP I am well aware of these challenges. This is why I am excited that we have this opportunity. We know that our rural advocacy voice can never be strong enough on our own and also that Rural General Practice needs a specific focus on it in order to thrive. I believe being in this Chapter/Te Whare Taumata as part of Hauora Taiwhenua/Rural Health Network enables us to do this. Our advocacy has helped put “Rural” into the Pae Ora Healthy Futures Bill so that we will have a Rural Health Strategy for which there will be accountability. General Practice is a crucial part of this strategy, please join us to be part of how that develops so we can get great health outcomes for rural people in a sustainable way which values the workforce.

-Dr Fiona Bolden

The founding dozen GPs who came together as a group in Canterbury in 1987  for mutual support and to lobby various ministers of health about the paucity of rural services, conditions and funding to our respective communities, could never have imagined the extent of its evolution to Hauora Taiwhenua Rural Health Network. 

The combined voices of NZ rural health communities, rural health providers and strong partnership with Maori is an exciting development, which presents our strongest united voice to Government. The first win is the last minute change of heart by Government, to recognize rural as an equity group and include a rural strategy into the new NZ health organisation. Fantastic achievement!

-Dr Janne Bills, East Otago Health

The formation of Te Whare Taumata Takutanga Taiwhenua ( Rural General Practice Chapter) and the wider Hauora Taiwhenua network creates the “One Voice” keeping  the health and wellbeing of rural communities in the spotlight that we have wanted for years.

By collecting together general practice teams, other primary care providers, hospital services, communities and industry bodies to confidently address what matters to people and communities and affirm the importance of community based health teams to the vitality of provincial and rural Aotearoa New Zealand.

It’s so exciting to be part of this movement ! Join us !

-Dr Jo Scott-Jones, GP Opotiki, Pinnacle MHN Medical Director

“The Rural General Practice Network arose from the perceived need for rural General Practice advocacy and pastoral connection for rural General Practitioners and their families. From small beginnings, led by wise practitioners with significant future vision , the Network has grown significantly in its stature and its function over the last 30 years. As the active rural advocate and holder of the rural workforce support contracts from the Ministry the Rural General Practice Network has had the foresight again to move strategically into the future with its support and delivery of the Hauora Taiwhenua organisation. As a longstanding member of the Rural General Practice Network and more recently an active board member I have seen, first-hand, the value of strong and common voices when advocacy for the challenges of rural practice and community wellbeing are concerned. Strengthening the voice with interdisciplinary and strong community voices alongside rural General Practice will enable a rurally focused strategy for wellbeing to come to fruition.

Carrying forward the representation of General Practice membership of the Rural General Practice Network into Hauora Taiwhenua Te Whare Taumata Takutanga Taiwhenua (Rural General Practice Chapter) we will continue to honour the aspirations of those early pioneers who had the foresight to bring us together collegially. It is through learning from the steps taken by our Tupuna/forefathers that we safely navigate our present and future steps towards success.”

-Dr Grahame Jelley

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