Nelson’s selection last week as one of the key training hubs for the new NZ Graduate School of Medicine (NZGSM) is exciting for the region. I commend Nelson Bays Primary Health on helping secure this opportunity.
We will host a new Community Clinical Learning Centre, providing graduate students with the opportunity to train in our hospital, after-hours medical centre, GP practices and in community healthcare services such as Te Piki Oranga.
The programme will start in 2029 with 12 students in Nelson. The next step for NZGSM will be sorting issues such as facilities, student accommodation and clinical supervision.
This new local doctors’ training programme complements Nelson’s excellent nursing school at NMIT. It has grown from an intake of 30 trainee nurses in 1974 to more than 100 first-year students today.
There are benefits to both our health services and economy from this initiative. Nelsonians will know how hard it is to get an appointment at the doctor. Our hospital and after-hours clinics also struggle to find suitably trained medics. These problems are only going to get worse with older people requiring more healthcare and the proportion of Nelson’s over-65 population increasing from 23% to 29% in 2036 and to 34% by 2046.
The new NZGSM at the University of Waikato is about addressing these nationwide workforce shortages. The advantage of doctors being trained here is that they discover our city’s climate, outdoor recreation, and arts. They may also find partners. These increase the likelihood they will stay and develop their medical careers here.
Council is working hard to attract all types of investment to the city – public and private – as both provide jobs and economic activity. Our state sector is smaller, 14% compared with 19% nationally, due to Nelson not having a university, prison, tertiary hospital, or major defence base.
We need to take niche opportunities such as this doctors’ training hub where it makes sense for Government to do more in Nelson. Other areas that play to Nelson’s strengths are fisheries management, marine engineering, and the ocean sciences where we are advocating for more being done in Nelson.
