Chris Reid: Rural med school plan a great move

Chris Reid.

A medical school in Northland? Yes please.

At the end of last year it is fair to say I postulated the future of rural primary care wasn't looking good.

With nearly 50 per cent of GPs indicating that they are going to retire in the next 10 years we are looking at a workforce crisis.

It takes a minimum of 9 years to train a GP and most medical students are choosing the big cities with the more glamorous and well paid specialties. Urgent action is clearly needed.

I am also not one of those people who feel the solution is artificial intelligence. I just don't think most of us are going to be comfortable discussing our health with a robot.

So you can imagine my sense of excitement when this week, in a joint initiative between Auckland University, Otago University, New Zealand Rural General Practice Network (NZRGPN) and the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (RNZCGP), it has been announced that a new School of Rural Health is to be considered.

The vision is for rural communities, including iwi, to be at the centre of rural health professional education and research to help address the country's chronic shortage of rural doctors.

Key features in the proposal include 20 inter-professional networked rural sites, investment in rural communities and administrative, hauora Māori, inter-professional education (IPE), Information technology (IT), student accommodation and research positions at these rural locations.

We need to be part of this.

Northland can already claim a little success. Northland DHB in partnership with Auckland University is now in its 10th year with their Pūkawakawa Medical Outreach Programme.

This brings medical students into the region for nine months rotating them through Whangarei, Kaitaia, Bay of Islands, Hokianga and Dargaville.

Medical practices like my own in Kerikeri also train sixth-year medical students who come for a six-week placement.

But a medical school based in rural communities brings a new level of opportunity to train our next generation of health practitioners, this could be a game changer.

The RNZCGP is currently running a campaign "GP - Heart of the community" aiming to raise awareness of the forecast shortage of GPs and to gain public support for more funding to train more GPs.

The College president, Wellsford GP Tim Malloy feels funding is needed to train another 100 GPs a year to cope with the shortage. Health Minister Dr Coleman points out 187 GPs are being trained each year, up 69 from eight years ago.

Right now New Zealand needs about 1000 doctors from overseas each year, many of whom don't stay.

Homegrown GPs from our own communities, trained in a Northland facility is the way forward. That's got to be better than Dr Google.

I encourage all potential stakeholders to embrace and facilitate the planning and co-operation that will be needed.