Rural hospital trainees at a training workshop in South Hokianga Photo: Supplied
The country's only dedicated rural hospital training course is delivering doctors where they're needed, but is crying out for more funding. A fifth of the population rely on rural health services, and the Rural Hospital Medicine Training Programme was set up in 2008 to address shortages in the field.
Ten years on, a paper assessing the RHMTP's efficacy shows over 90 percent of graduates are choosing to work in provincial New Zealand; two thirds in the South Island. However, the study also reveals the continuing barriers to providing this much-needed resource includes a need for more funding for training requirements. Lynn Freeman speaks with University of Otago report authors Dr Kaati Blattner and Dr Garry Nixon.
