12. MOANA MACKEY (Labour) Link to this
to the Minister for Rural Affairs
Has he received any reports on improving recruitment and retention of medical staff in rural areas?
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR (Minister for Rural Affairs) Link to this
Yes. The Government has announced that from next February the number of fully funded places for general practice training will rise from 69 a year to 104. Also, from February 2008 up to 20 fifth-year medical students from Auckland University will have the opportunity to spend a year working and studying at Whangarei Hospital and smaller hospitals in Northland. Thirdly, the University of Otago has been given $300,000 to develop a curriculum for a rural medical immersion programme at two rural district health boards.
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR Link to this
Last week I saw a report that fully supports the initiatives this Government is implementing in the rural sector, including improvements to rural health. It includes recommendations to expand the number of medical student places, as well as increasing training in rural and provincial areas. I refer, of course, to National’s rural issues policy paper, which is nothing more than a cut and paste of current Labour policies. That paper does two things: firstly, it endorses current Government initiatives; and, secondly, it marks a return to the failed policies of the 1990s, including the desire to sell Landcorp, privatise the Accident Compensation Corporation, and undercut labour laws so that farm workers become seasonal workers.
Jo GoodhewDoes the Minister realise that the greatest threat to the rural workforce is the way this Government fails to understand them, value them, and respect them, as recorded in the IPAC 2006 General Practice Business Study, and then has senior public servants refer to nurses as “vote maximisers”?
Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR Link to this
I am very aware of the 2006 study by the Independent Practitioners Association Council. In fact, it was a study of 36 general practitioners out of a total of 1,100. I accept that some of those recommendations have some validity, but I do not accept that the study was a wide-ranging study of the rural health sector across the country.