Region ‘second best’ for doctors
Taranaki has been ranked second again, this time in the health sector.
In 2016 the region was voted the second best to visit in the world by travel guide Lonely Planet and, nearly one year later, its District Health Board (DHB) was placed second in a survey ranking graduating doctors’ most preferred hospitals to work in.
The survey, conducted by the New Zealand Resident Doctors’ Association (NZRDA), found Taranaki was more popular among new doctors than Wellington and Auckland, and coming in just behind Rotorua.
Every year, medical school graduates rank their preferences for which hospital they’d prefer to work in as a qualified doctor (resident doctor or RMO), naming which hospital as ‘‘number one’’ against the number of positions available for employment.
This gave ‘‘a consistent measure of the popularity of NZ hospitals amongst the newest of our doctors’’, NZRDA national secretary Dr Deborah Powell said.
‘‘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,’’ she said.
‘‘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.’’
TDHB chief of operations, Gillian Campbell, said to come in as second most popular hospital out of 20 DHBs should be credited to the hard work in training and support for junior doctors, referring to Dr Jonathan Albrett’s Acute Skills Teaching Programme.
Campbell said the programme had been recognised last year when Albrett received an award for innovation from the National Health Round Table for launching the scheme.
Albrett explained the programme aimed to support first year doctors’ transition to working in a hospital, particularly in regards to their providing acute care for deteriorating patients on the wards. He said the majority of first year doctors often felt underprepared when caring for these patients independently.
‘‘First year doctors have trained hard for six years and are very capable.
‘‘However, first year doctors naturally lack the on-ward experience, so when they are caring for acute or deteriorating patients this can be challenging for them.’’
Albrett, who has trained for 15 years at Auckland Medical School, and at Taranaki Base and Waikato Hospitals to become an anaesthetist and an intensive care specialist, said no amount of training prepared doctors for the experience gained within the wards.
He said the programme had ‘‘added to the quality care’’ provided by TDHB.
The fourth round of the programme will commence with the new in-take of first year doctors, who arrive November 2017.
‘‘In the last few years Taranaki Base Hospital has been seen as a popular destination for first year doctors and has attracted a high calibre of applicants,’’ Albrett said.
‘‘Part of my reasoning for initiating this programme was to attract these doctors and provide them this training and support.’’
Hospital ranking in order from first: Rotorua Hospital; New Plymouth (Taranaki) Hospital; Wellington Hospitals; Nelson Hospital; Tauranga Hospital; Auckland City Hospital; Christchurch Hospital; Whangarei Hospital; Middlemore Hospital; Dunedin Hospital; Invercargill Hospital; Waitemata Hospitals; Hastings Hospital; Waikato Hospital; Palmerston North Hospital; Gisborne Hospital; Timaru Hospital; Wairau Hospital; Whanganui Hospital; Whakatane Hospital.