If you don’t schmooze you lose . . . GPS

BROOK SABIN/STUFF

Amid a nationwide shortage, attracting GPS to set up surgery in rural New Zealand has become an increasingly difficult operation.

So, with this in mind, the Marlborough Primary Health Organisation has teamed up with Destination Marlborough to help entice medical practitioners from across Aotearoa, and the globe, to settle and practice in the region.

Organisation chief executive Beth Tester said showcasing what the area had to offer potential recruits in terms of personal lifestyle and professional development was integral in attracting GPS to the region.

‘‘By bringing them here and showing them around just cements the relationship, and shows that we actually do care about them as people,’’ Tester said.

The organisation advertised GP vacancies abroad in publications such as the British Medical Journal in the United Kingdom, she said.

Once a potential applicant had shown signs of interest, Tester said the organisation would then send through profiles of the medical centres and surgeries in the region that were recruiting. The process then took on strategies reminiscent to online dating websites.

‘‘Each of our practices have done a wee bio about themselves that we can actually give to the GPS, so that they can then choose from the different practices that they may wish to find out more about,’’ Tester said.

‘‘Before they come, we set up

Zoom interviews, but we also send them through a lot of information that we’ve got from Destination Marlborough and the links to videos of the region as well, and that seems to be working really well.’’

The organisation had spent around $75,000 this year on attracting new practitioners to the area, she said.

‘‘That’s mostly on advertising, and not so much on the schmoozing. We had a GP who was interested in working at Urgent Care at the time, and we paid for their flights down to have a look around the region, paid their accommodation for the weekend, gave them a car, that sort of thing, and then took them out to a winery for lunch just to have a chat about what they were looking for, what they’d seen, all those sorts of things.’’ Tester said.

Showcasing the natural beauty of the area and the active lifestyle Marlborough had to offer were also high on the agenda.

‘‘Some of [the PHO board members] have baches down the Sounds, and they’d be more than welcome to go down for a weekend, all those sorts of things, all those little extras you can do. It’s just offering opportunities that we have access to locally, and the local