NZRDA Welcomes Labour’s Announcement to Increase the Number of Medical School Placements by 2027
NZRDA welcomes the announcement by Labour today that if re-elected they will increase the number of medical school placements from the current increase of 50 placements in 2024, to 335 by 2027. This increase will see 874 medical school places by 2027.
“NZRDA has lobbied hard to get an increase in medical school numbers to 300 a year as an essential step in ensuring we have a sustainable medical workforce into the future.” said Dr Deborah Powell, National Secretary of NZRDA. “Now that both the National and Labour parties have committed to this level of increase, the remaining issues such as the most cost-effective mechanism to achieve our goal and how quickly we can train the new graduates without compromising on the quality of the practitioners we produce in NZ can be settled. Issues such as graduate entry programmes will need to be sorted out as one example” said Dr Powell.
Contact
Dr Deborah Powell
National Secretary
New Zealand Resident Doctors’ Association
Mobile 021 614 040
Landline 09 526 0280
Resident Doctors and Senior Medical Officers
Resident Doctors are also known as RMOs or Resident Medical Officers. The term SMO (Senior Medical Officer) is the equivalent term for Senior Doctors or consultants working in NZ’s public health system.
Resident doctors are registered medical practitioners ranging from new medical school graduates through to vocationally registered GPs and SMOs. They can be a resident doctor for up to 13 years, during which time they continue with postgraduate training in specialist fields such as GP, paediatrics, surgery, pathology, and so on. Once they complete this additional training they become GPs or SMOs.