National will deliver more doctors by creating a medical school at the University of Waikato and increasing medical school placements, National Leader and Botany MP Christopher Luxon says.
“The health sector is experiencing a workforce crisis. Sick and injured New Zealanders are waiting hours in emergency departments, weeks to see a GP and months on surgical wait lists.
“Currently, New Zealand does not train enough doctors to meet the demands of our growing and aging population, or to replace our retiring health workforce.
“That’s why a National Government I lead will open a new medical school in Waikato to boost the number of doctors being trained.”
National will also increase the number of medical school placements at Auckland and Otago by 50 from 2025. This will be in addition to the 50 extra places already funded at Budget 2023.
“Together, this will see an additional 220 doctors graduating a year by 2030, compared to just 50 more under Labour’s plan,” says Luxon.
“The new medical school will have clinical training alliances with other universities and medical facilities around regional New Zealand – a model that will deliver more doctors committed to serving in provincial and rural parts of the country.
“Increasing home-grown doctors is vital to delivering the public services that New Zealanders deserve and National sees this as an essential and long-term investment.
“This medical school should have been started five years ago as the previous National Government planned. Labour cancelled it in 2018 and their short-sightedness means we will have to continue to rely heavily on immigration to increase our doctor numbers in the short term.
“A responsible government plans for the future, and that is exactly what a National government will do.
“National understands the importance of growing New Zealand’s health workforce. That is why we have already announced plans to boost nurses and midwives’ numbers by paying their student loan repayments if they enter a five-year bonding agreement, and make New Zealand a more attractive destination for international nurses.
“A National Government I lead will deliver better healthcare for New Zealand.”
University of Waikato welcomes third medical school announcement
The University of Waikato welcomes the announcement by the National Party that if the Party is successful in this year’s General Election it will establish New Zealand’s third medical school.
“This is a fundamental step towards addressing our health workforce needs and reducing our chronic reliance on importing our health workforce from overseas,” University of Waikato Vice-Chancellor Professor Neil Quigley says.
“The University of Waikato has consistently made the case for investment in a third medical school to meet the current and future workforce needs of our health sector. We are committed to establishing a medical school based here in the Waikato region but with partners in other parts of New Zealand, as well as to building a full range of allied health programmes.”
Quigley says a third medical school will provide a long-term solution to the relentless growth in demand for doctors, most keenly felt in general practice and psychiatry and in medical practices outside the main urban centres.
“The third medical school will put us on the pathway to reduce the country’s heavy reliance on importing doctors from other countries, which is unsustainable,” Quigley says.
“New Zealand cannot hope for better health workforce outcomes if we keep doing the same thing over and over. We need more doctors in training, we need to select students from a wider range of backgrounds who are committed to long-term careers in primary care outside the main centres, we need to place these students in the regions they are most needed, and we need a new curriculum that will prepare for a workforce consistent with the future demands of New Zealand’s health system. The University of Waikato is committed to achieving all of these things.”
Quigley says the university would establish the New Zealand Graduate School of Medicine in partnership with other New Zealand universities. It would select up to 120 students who have already completed an undergraduate bachelor’s degree and provide them with four years of intensive, practical medical education.
This graduate-entry model is used by the very best medical schools internationally and is highly successful.
He says the University of Waikato has been building its capability in health and is proud of the success of its newly-established nursing programme, with the student intake increasing from 40 in 2021 to more than 210 in 2023, in response to severe staff shortages in the region’s health workforce.
The university is also currently developing programmes for other health professions in direct response to stakeholder needs within the region and the country.
Quigley says the University of Waikato is well placed to deliver a new and more socially accountable medical school and it has the widespread stakeholder support to do so.
