Rural doctor trainee numbers increase on West Coast
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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Without a bridle or a saddle, across a thing, I ride a-straddle. And those I ride, by help of me, though almost blind, are made to see. What am I?
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Kalle
"Sports and travelling run in the family, and that's kind of what's led me to come to New Zealand."
"I grew up in a small town in Finland. My dad was involved with sports all his life, he was a shot putter, discus thrower, powerlifter, we traveled quite a bit when I was a kid. He never mentioned much of the rugby days. He just said he broke both of his shin bones playing rugby, so he said, ‘never play the sport, It's crazy.’
I started playing when I was 18. I played my first cap for the Finnish national team in 2014, we won the Finnish championship with my club. Rugby is not a big thing in Finland.
I moved here to play rugby in 2017. The club that wanted me to come over was Methven Rugby Club. They got me here and they were like, ‘what do you do for work? I’d just finished chef school in Finland. ‘We'll get you a job at Mount Hutt as a chef, you can do that while you play rugby with us.’ I said, ‘Perfect. Yeah, I'm in’.
I've always loved food. My mum was an amazing cook, and still is. When I was studying tourism I worked in some hotels in Finland, and I saw how the chef's worked. I just loved the kitchen vibe and I was like, Yeah, that’d be something I'd love to do.
I've had more of a culinary journey In New Zealand than in Finland. I started at Mount Hutt, after that I worked at The Dubliner in Methven. I worked as a senior pizza chef at Sal’s for maybe six months then worked as chef de partie at Cellar Door. At Eliza's Manor, I worked myself up to a junior sous chef. Then the opportunity came to work my first head chef job at Moon Under Water.
We're privileged to have a busy atmosphere, we can try new things and get a bit creative. There are no TV’s, just come here with your family or with your mates, play board games, to socialise.
I really want to drive the local food and ingredients through the menu. We don't mind spending more for quality ingredients as long as it's supporting New Zealand businesses. We just love to use local. And it's pub food, but I feel like it's elevated.
I play club rugby here for the Christchurch Football Club, the oldest club in New Zealand and I still play regularly for the Finnish national team, whenever they can fly me over to play."
- Kalle
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