The New Zealand Rural Hospital Doctors Workforce Survey 2015

Affiliations

• ¹ Waikato Clinical Campus, The University of Auckland, Hamilton. Ross.Lawrenson@waikatodhb.health.nz.
• ² AIMS: The aim of the study was to assess medical workforce needs of New Zealand rural hospitals. METHODS: We undertook a survey of all the managers of rural hospitals in New Zealand. We also analysed the Medical Council data relevant to doctors with a vocational scope of rural hospital medicine, followed by online surveys of rural hospital doctors and registrars in training. RESULTS: There were 26 rural hospitals identified. 18/26 (69%) directly employed medical staff. Managers identified a shortage of rural hospital doctors, although this was much improved compared to 2009. While most vocationally registered doctors working in rural hospitals were older, male and predominantly international medical graduates, we found that registrars in training were more likely to be female, from a rural background and to have trained in New Zealand. Seventy-five percent of rural trainees are either trained in general practice or are pursuing dual training. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides useful information for rural hospital managers, clinical leaders and others involved in workforce planning. While there has been a reduction of the workforce shortages of a few years ago, there are still shortages for many hospitals. The new cadre of trainees are more likely to be female and are looking to be rural generalists.