Why NZ urgently needs a rural medical school
I wish to draw readers’ attention to the recent announcement to quash plans for a rural medical school.
For rural NZ this decision is body blow that will undoubtedly ensure the maldistribution of health professionals choosing to live and working in cities continues unabated.
Ever had trouble getting to see a GP? Or find a midwife? Or book in to see a physio? You know what I mean then.
For those who were not familiar, Waikato and a joint Otago/Auckland group had a bid for a rural clinical schools that would allow more health professionals from rural areas to be trained in rural centres and the previous Government had agreed to fund this prior to the election.
On Friday, Health Minister David Clark announced he was scrapping plans to establish a school of rural medicine.
As any rural health professional will tell you, respect is the key to any good relationship be it with your community, your patients or other clinicians.
For politicians, respect is mostly all about money.
You can take it as a read that David Clark does not think it is worth wasting money on training rural health professionals.
But all of us who live in regional areas that are struggling lose so much more.
Rural clinical schools in Europe, Australia and Canada such as Flinders University and the Northern Ontario School of Medicine speak of ‘‘distributed rural medical education’’.
The crux is that training people with rural background be they doctors, nurses, midwives, physios or any health professional in a rural setting is about so much more than the end ‘‘product’’.
It means in training young people outside the cities they can become part of the community and join sporting and cultural groups.
It means facilitating research in small communities into broader issues such as tourism innovation systems, youth wellbeing and rural migration.
But importantly it means you ensure rural students spend at least some of the formative years of their lives meeting other young people (outside the big smoke) who someday may settle down together.
Maybe even outside a city!
This was just such a needed solution.
But then like so many questions that seem to affect many rural New Zealander’s at present – is anybody listening?
Dr Brendan Marshall
You can take it as a read that David Clark does not think it is worth wasting money on training rural health professionals.