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Rotorua Hospital is the top choice for New Zealand's graduating doctors, a new survey has found.
Every year, graduates of New Zealand medical schools rank their preferences for which hospital they wish to start work at as a qualified doctor (Resident Doctor or RMO), the New Zealand Resident Doctors' Association (NZRDA) said.
The number of graduating doctors choosing which hospital as "number one" against the number of positions available for employment gives a consistent measure of the popularity of hospitals amongst the newest of our doctors.
Using this method, Rotorua Hospital (Lakes DHB) has taken the top spot as the number one preferred employer in 2017, followed by Taranaki, with Wellington taking out the third spot overall, and also being the most preferred of the tertiary DHBs.
"Rotorua Hospital is known to be responsive to RMO needs. As one example, it was the first cab off the rank to implement Safer Rosters following the recent MECA settlement," said Dr Deborah Powell, NZRDA national secretary.
"There are a number of different factors which influence a doctor's decision about where to work, including some unrelated to the hospital itself, such as where they want to live," says Dr Powell.
"Nonetheless, factors such as employer compliance with employment terms and conditions, and support - including appropriate training and supervision - are hugely significant to our new graduates."
Lakes DHB service manager for emergency and medical management services Jenny Martelli said the DHB worked hard to provide a positive working and training experience for RMOs and was delighted that had resulted in it being ranked number one choice for first year doctors.
She said the chief medical officer was committed to ensuring house officers received the best possible training and support available to them and worked closely with the Medical Management Unit and clinical leadership team to continually monitor and improve systems.
"Rotorua Hospital has a fantastic team of four Prevocational Educational Supervisors who look after the first and second year house officers. These supervisors are all senior medical staff who are passionate about supporting and developing our new doctors to ensure that they get the best possible training opportunities and experiences available.
"This team works closely with the senior medical staff in each service to ensure the house officers are appropriately supported to learn and develop their skills in the first two years post graduation.
"Rotorua Hospital has a Medical Management Unit which takes care of all recruitment, rostering, training, leave management, career planning and performance management for RMOs. The staff in the unit get to know all the RMOs personally and provide pastoral support and guidance on a daily basis to the new young doctors. They run a reward system for RMOs who go above and beyond, which is supported by local businesses who provide free products or services which include something as simple as a coffee voucher through to Duck Tours, massages and dinners for two."
Rank order
1Rotorua Hospital
2New Plymouth (Taranaki) Hospital
3Wellington Hospitals
4Nelson Hospital
5Tauranga Hospital
6Auckland City Hospital
7Christchurch Hospital
8Whangarei Hospital
9Middlemore Hospital
10Dunedin Hospital
11Invercargill Hospital
12Waitemata Hospitals
13Hastings Hospital
14Waikato Hospital
15Palmerston North Hospital
16Gisborne Hospital
17Timaru Hospital
18Wairau Hospital
19Whanganui Hospital
20Whakatane Hospital