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325 days ago

Rural doctor trainee numbers increase on West Coast

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

By local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:

A jump in rural doctor trainee numbers on the West Coast is expected to create one of the "largest cohorts of training doctors" in the region this year.

At the same time, the number of rural generalist positions appointed in the region have doubled over the past three years, says Health NZ Te Whatu Ora.

The rural generalist model was launched in 2019 to solve chronic shortages of doctors on the Coast.


Health NZ associate director of operations for the West Coast Philip Wheble said the rural generalist model "is paying dividends" across the region.

"We are investing in the future with the training of our junior medical workforce in rural hospitals and (in 2024) we will have one of the largest cohorts of training doctors we have ever had on the Coast."

There were 14.43 (full-time equivalent) rural generalists, filled by 19 individuals, in November 2023. This was up from 7.15 FTE positions, filled by nine individuals, in June 2020.

In addition, Health NZ had engaged an additional three full-time equivalent GPs (four individuals) and 7.3 full-time equivalent rural generalists (10 individuals) over the past three years, Wheble said.

The total number of full time equivalent Health NZ GPs in the region in June 2020 was 5.71 FTE, filled by seven individuals.

"This increased to a total of 8.63 FTE filled by 11 individuals in November 2023," he said.

"We have also seen an increase in nurse practitioners where we had three FTE filled by three individuals and this has now increased to 4.25 FTE filled by 6 individuals."

There continued to be a few West Coast positions to fill by Health NZ including a couple of GP, rural generalist and psychiatrist roles.

The rural generalist team covers primary care, urgent care, emergency medicine, general medicine, paediatrics, orthopaedics, and obstetrics/gynaecology.

He said bringing in more staff has helped Health NZ West Coast to support primary care as well as creating "more robust" emergency, obstetrics and medicine teams.

The Coast also had in-house specialists - psychiatry, anaesthetics, general surgery plus obstetrics and gynaecology.

Those services were bolstered via Health NZ Canterbury to support local care and tertiary transfers to Christchurch Hospital where needed. In addition, nurse practitioners in primary care had been increased.

"This significant improvement in the permanent staffing within primary care is something that has not occurred for some time on Coast. It also means that our spend on locums has decreased considerably in the last three years," Wheble said.

At the same time, primary care staff numbers in the region should continue to increase, given a greater focus on rural in the national health workforce plan and a commitment on the West Coast to develop its rural generalist workforce, he said.

"In the short term, we will continue managing our staffing challenges, which includes the use of locum doctors and telehealth."

* LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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More messages from your neighbours
1 day ago

Worst Xmas ever?

The Team from Neighbourly.co.nz

There's a a lot of planning that goes into Christmas day and sometimes things just don't go to plan. But it can be a good thing - a family mishap or hilarious memory that you can laugh about in Christmases to come.

Whether you burnt the dinner or were stranded at an airport...

Share your Christmas mishaps below!

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13 days ago

⚠️ DOGS DIE IN HOT CARS. If you love them, don't leave them. ⚠️

The Team from SPCA New Zealand

It's a message we share time and time again, and this year, we're calling on you to help us spread that message further.
Did you know that calls to SPCA about dogs left inside hot cars made up a whopping 11% of all welfare calls last summer? This is a completely preventable issue, and one which is causing hundreds of dogs (often loved pets) to suffer.
Here are some quick facts to share with the dog owners in your life:

👉 The temperature inside a car can heat to over 50°C in less than 15 minutes.
👉 Parking in the shade and cracking windows does little to help on a warm day. Dogs rely on panting to keep cool, which they can't do in a hot car.
👉 This puts dogs at a high risk of heatstroke - a serious condition for dogs, with a mortality rate between 39%-50%.
👉 It is an offence under the Animal Welfare Act to leave a dog in a hot vehicle if they are showing signs of heat stress. You can be fined, and prosecuted.
SPCA has created downloadable resources to help you spread the message even further. Posters, a flyer, and a social media tile can be downloaded from our website here: www.spca.nz...
We encourage you to use these - and ask your local businesses to display the posters if they can. Flyers can be kept in your car and handed out as needed.
This is a community problem, and one we cannot solve alone. Help us to prevent more tragedies this summer by sharing this post.
On behalf of the animals - thank you ❤️

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5 days ago

Poll: Would you rather: Christmas in summer forever or winter forever?

The Team from Neighbourly.co.nz

Just a bit of a fun poll to get you thinking.

If you had to live out your Christmas days, would you prefer it was a summer Christmas or a winter Christmas?

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Would you rather: Christmas in summer forever or winter forever?
  • 61.8% Summer
    61.8% Complete
  • 36.6% Winter
    36.6% Complete
  • 1.6% Other - I'll share below
    1.6% Complete
1344 votes