5. JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki) Link to this
to the Minister of Health
What progress has the Government made on the Voluntary Bonding Scheme?
Hon TONY RYALL (Minister of Health) Link to this
The Voluntary Bonding Scheme is designed to encourage graduate doctors, nurses, and midwives to stay in New Zealand, by writing off their student loan if they work in a hard-to-staff area. For the third year in a row the scheme has been hugely popular with young doctors, nurses, and midwives. This year 429 more graduates have enrolled, bringing the number of health professionals on the scheme to more that 1,800. These graduates are keeping their skills at home and helping patients in hard-to-staff specialities and areas.
I am advised by the Ministry of Health that there are 1,424 nurses, 220 doctors, and 179 midwives currently enrolled in the scheme. They are signed up to work in remote communities, including the East Coast, and in specialities including general practice, rural hospital medicine, intensive care nursing, and aged-care nursing—areas that have struggled to get the staff that they need. Just last week, Marilyn Head of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation said the scheme “helps to develop critical leadership and a homegrown workforce.”