NZRDA Welcomes Labour’s Announcement to Increase the Number of Medical School Placements by 2027

NZRDA welcomes the announcement by Labour today that if re-elected they will increase the number of medical school placements from the current increase of 50 placements in 2024, to 335 by 2027. This increase will see 874 medical school places by 2027.

“NZRDA has lobbied hard to get an increase in medical school numbers to 300 a year as an essential step in ensuring we have a sustainable medical workforce into the future,” said Dr Deborah Powell, National Secretary of NZRDA.

“Now that both the National and Labour parties have committed to this level of increase, the remaining issues such as the most cost-effective mechanism to achieve our goal and how quickly we can train the new graduates without compromising on the quality of the practitioners we produce in NZ can be settled. Issues such as graduate entry programmes will need to be sorted out as one example,” said Dr Powell.