Medical grads encouraged to stay home

The Government's Voluntary Bonding Scheme is proving to be very successful in attracting medical graduates to work in hard-to-staff areas and specialties, including Rangitikei.

The scheme was introduced in 2009 to encourage graduating doctors, nurses and midwives to start their medical careers at home, by offering student loan write-offs or cash incentives over a three to five-year period.

In return, the graduates work in hard-to-staff regions and specialties, including cardiothoracic, intensive care, theatre and surgical, mental health and aged care.

The latest figures show the scheme is proving successful in servicing communities, including Rangitikei which, like many rural communities, has traditionally struggled with higher vacancy rates, higher locum use, higher use of overseas trained professionals and longer waiting times.

There are currently about 1820 graduates in the scheme nationwide, including 1424 nurses, 220 doctors and 179 midwives - and for the third year in a row registration for the scheme has exceed expectations.

What's more, despite the economic constraints the Government is facing, we've managed to accept everyone who has applied for the scheme. It's great to see that all of the three District Health Boards that service the Rangitikei electorate - MidCentral, Whanganui, and Waikato - have been able to attract graduates to their areas.

Starting with MidCentral DHB, last year they attracted 12 nurses, taking their total to 27 graduate nurses under the scheme.

Whanganui DHB attracted nine nurses and two midwives last year, taking their total to 27 (including eight midwives, four doctors, and 15 nurses).

Waikato DHB signed 24 nurses last year, taking their total to more than 59 graduate bonded nurses.

These figures clearly demonstrate that the scheme has been successful in addressing workforce shortages. It is hoped that it will also help to keep our best and brightest medical graduates in New Zealand - and not just when they're starting out, but for the long term.