4 August 2021

Every December, at drinks in a workplace I knew well, came the comment: “Well, that was a shit year, let’s hope next year will be better.”

A Westport general practice was forced to relocate, and staff of two Marlborough clinics were cut off from work, after last month’s extreme flooding in the South Island.

An Ōtaki GP has been forced to re­turn to the UK by the Government’s freeze on new residency applications, and a Kāpiti GP fears her family may have to follow.

New Zealand’s GPs are “drowning” in the face of the chronic workforce issues making their jobs unten­able and unsafe, according to respondents to a New Zealand Doctor Rata Aotearoa survey

The Royal Australian College of GPs and the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine are working together, towards rural generalist medicine becoming a protected title and a specialised field within the general practice speciality.

The organisation that began as a bus with 11 steering wheels and 11 brakes is using the spirit of Matariki to celebrate its 10th anniver­sary, a new home and the beginning of its next journey.

New Zealand graduate nurses are choosing to work in general practice and other primary care settings much earlier in their career and in higher numbers than previously.

Heart muscle inflammation has been confirmed as a rare side effect of Pfizer COVID-19 vac­cination in New Zealand.

A Locum GP diagnosed a man with gastritis, despite knowing it did not ac­count for all his symptoms. Two days later, he suffered a deadly heart attack.

Stretched services and limited resources are creating multiple difficul­ties for rural general practices in Taranaki trying to deliver the COVID-19 vaccine.