Dr Grant Davidson – August 2026

Kia ora tātou

Advocacy is a long game!

Often it feels relentless, fruitless and thankless as we go into bat with politicians and agency staff to get needed change for our rural kaimahi and their community members. I often describe this as ‘dripping water on a stone’. Every drip of water seems to make no difference, but over a period of time you can look back and see even the hardest rock being worn away. The only certainty is that if the water stops dripping, or if different sources of water drip in different places, there will never be any progress.

That is why it is always important to celebrate the successes of our persistence. Last week saw the release of the Ministerial Advisory Group on Aged Care in New Zealand. It was so pleasing to see direct quotes from our submissions being embedded in the recommendations, including recognition that it costs more to provide similar ARC care beds in rural areas, but that they are needed for those local communities. Rural-proofing of this document has occurred. We have to keep pressing now to ensure we are no forgotten when it comes to the action/implementation phase.

This closely followed the decision by Pharmac to expand the scope of type 2 diabetes medicines to significantly widen the eligible group. While we had argued for retaining an ethnicity focus, this final outcome will include those rural Māori and Pasifika community members we were concerned about; and more!

This morning we were sent a copy of the Regional and Rural Workforce Strategy 2026-28 of the Australian and NZ College of Anaesthetists. Brilliant that they have developed such a strategy to ensure there is a spotlight on ensuring continued training and service provision of anaesthetists in Regional and Rural New Zealand. This document also supports the Rural Generalist model that we are advocating for to service our communities. Full marks to ANZCA.

We are concurrently working on multiple other advocacy fronts. These include:
• Working with the Medical Council and various Colleges to allow for flexible supervision requirements of registrars, trainees and IMGs in rural practices.
• Looking at reducing the hazards for lone-workers responding to PRIME calls.
• Ensuring that there are appropriate rural generalist pathways and recognition across all rural health professions. And these pathways are funded wherever possible.
• That Health NZ provides support for digital support systems and technology in rural primary care that the sector prioritises.
• That there is long-term planning to ensure rural communities get funded health services appropriate to their community size and rurality. Where these can’t be provided locally, that funded transport options exist to improve access to specialist hospital and specialist services in major centres.
• That the training of various health professionals is embedded in as many rural communities as possible to increase access, drive down costs and provide a local source of workforce in the future.
• And much more…

You will soon see the lease of our Rural Health Election Manifesto with a number of key advocacy requests of any incoming Coalition of Parties that form a new Government after the November Election. These requests follow directly from the themes that emerged in the Aotearoa New Zealand Declaration on Rural Health 2026, developed at Rural WONCA earlier this year. We are running an on-line political panel to find out directly from each Party what they will commit to in terms of our Manifesto to improve the health profiles of rural communities. Block out your diaries now for this important Rural Health Political Panel, Monday evening 12th October 6 – 7:30pm.

And to show that advocacy issues are only a political announcement away, yesterday afternoon we saw David Seymour declare an election pledge to remove Medical School Admission Programmes that work to ensure the future workforce in New Zealand is reflective of its community and therefore better able to meet the health needs of that community. The public need to understand that all medical schools in New Zealand ensure that every one of their graduates is of a consistently high standard. What we need to preserve and further develop are pathways to allow those who have not had the privilege of the best private school backgrounds, an opportunity to enter these training programmes. I want a future where we don’t just measure success in terms of academic excellence, but where health professionals are equally recognised for their social, cultural, emotional and spiritual skills; so that they can meet the needs and expectations of a diverse community. Those most at risk of discrimination if Minister Seymour gets his way will be rangatahi from rural, Māori, Pasifika and low socioeconomic backgrounds who want to train to provide health services back to their communities.

Please be aware that our advocacy efforts are carried out by a small number of skilled, passionate and clever folk within Hauora Taiwhenua, supported by the volunteer efforts of our members. If you want to make a difference, then join us and strengthen our voice!

That strength of voice managed to change the Pae Ora Healthy Futures Legislation to make Rural Communities a visible part of the Act and therefore a necessary part of Health NZ’s strategy, plans and accountability measures. We are making that long term difference.

Be part of our dripping water programme!

Mauri ora
Grant