Council of Medical Colleges Commends Health Workforce Plan

Te Kaunihera o Ngā Kareti Rata o Aotearoa |The Council of Medical Colleges in New Zealand (CMC) welcomes the Health Workforce Plan released today.

“The Health sector has been crying out for a workforce plan for too long – it is so good to see a clear plan with short and long term initiatives to retain, grow and recruit our health workers,” said CMC Chair, Dr Samantha Murton.

The Council of Medical Colleges has long been calling for a robust, well-trained, culturally safe health workforce that meets the needs of patients and whānau in Aotearoa New Zealand.

“We are glad to see that the Health Workforce Plan reflects some of the ongoing discussions we have had with Ministers and Officials – particularly about how to increase the capacity of prevocational training and vocational training programmes to bolster our home-grown workforce.

“We welcome the efforts to increase the number of home-grown health practitioners, look after and retain our hard-working health workforce, and supplement our homegrown workforce with international recruits.

“We support the intention to over-represent Māori and Pacifica trainees in our workforce, to balance the effects of international medical graduates and to make sure we have a health system as diverse as the communities we serve.

With an aging population and growing demand for healthcare services, the CMC considers it essential that we have a sustainable workforce to meet the health needs of our communities now and into the future.

“Medicine is a challenging but highly rewarding career; we strongly encourage aspiring medical students to take advantage of the opportunity this plan presents and the 50 additional funded student places announced recently.

“Training more medical specialists will always take more time than the next 365 days as this plan outlines, so we look forward to working with Te Whatu Ora and Te Aka Whai Ora to help alleviate the workforce shortage,” Dr Murton said.

About the Council of Medical Colleges in New Zealand:

CMC represents seventeen medical colleges who provide support to over 9000 medical practitioners working in a range of 34 specialties in the Aotearoa New Zealand health system. Medical colleges are educational bodies responsible for the training, examination and recertification of medical practitioners in specific medical disciplines.