More med students a small but important step in addressing workforce shortages

The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners is welcoming the funding of an additional 50 medical students per year from 2024.

College President Dr Samantha Murton says, "having 50 more students starting their journey to becoming medical professionals will be a well-needed boost to the already stretched health sector.

"Increasing the number of ‘home grown’ medical students has been a consistent message from the College. It is important that we have a workforce that reflects our population and is an important part of increasing the number of Māori and Pacific medical professionals.

Alongside this change, we need to see more action taken to ensure all medical students have much greater exposure to general practice and rural hospital medicine during their training.

"What students currently receive is nowhere near adequate given the vital role that specialist general practitioners and rural hospital doctors play and that most health care occurs outside of hospital walls."

With 95 percent of New Zealanders enrolled with a GP and 90 percent of health concerns being dealt with in a general practice, there is an urgent need to grow the workforce.

"Along with attracting medical graduates into general practice and rural hospital medicine we also need to acknowledge the current workforce and work on ways to support them to stay in the job longer to pass on their valuable knowledge to the next generation of GPs.

"General practice is a challenging but highly rewarding career, and having the opportunity to showcase our profession to even more med students is a small but important step in addressing the workforce crisis," says Dr Murton.