Margie Apa: Health NZ CEO on the focus on increasing the number of nurses and doctors

There’s a particular focus on increasing the number of doctors in Health NZ's three-year Workforce Plan. 

The plan looks at changing the way it delivers care and boosting training, overseas recruitment and retention of workers.  

It shows New Zealand needs more than 5000 doctors in the next decade. 

Chief executive Margie Apa told Heather du Plessis-Allan they recognise more work is needed to recruit doctors. 

She says there's a lot that leave the country early in their careers, so Health NZ's looking at making advanced employment offers so they know they can come home. 

Only half of this year’s nursing graduates recieved a job offer. 

Apa says they're looking at other ways to create employment opportunities. 

She says it could mean giving graduates temporary experience for a year or two.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So howth New Zealand's new workforce plan makes for some
grim reading. They release the numbers we need another fifty
or let's try this, two hundred and fifty doctors in
the next ten years and six three hundred and fifty
nurses now joining me right now is Health New Zealand
ceomarji appahamrjie.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
How do we fill numbers that big? That's massive.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Well as well most of them progressive new thing certainly
put doctors. We got a lot of work to do
to recruit but also important to grow our own and
so you know, we're really pleased that the initiatives governments
now to increase the number of doctor training. But in
the plan, you know, we've got some really practical things
that we need to do, not just in social recruitment,

(00:40):
but really focusing on those specialties that need more doctors,
growing our your advancing working with private hospitals to get
there involved in helping us train our staff. But also importantly,
we have a lot of doctors that leave the country
early in their career and we want to look at
how we make advanced employment officers and know that they

(01:02):
can come home to a job.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
So if we're looking for some good news here. It's
the fact that we are actually catching up with the nurses.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
We've managed to fill a whole bunch of vacancies, but
we're still not giving all the nurses graduating jobs.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Why not, Well, we have offered new grad jobs when
we've had turnover, so they're still in existing vacancies. Of course,
this year our vacancy is dropped right down to just
over two percent, which is quite unusual for our sector.
So we are looking at other ways to create employment opportunities.
We're putting up some funding to the funded sector primary

(01:36):
care additual peer to take these squared, but we're also
looking at how we can create some other opportunities within
Health New Zealand, even if it means that we're giving
them some temperate experience for a year or two. But
certainly would like to see our turnover rates go up,
which was.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Mighty don't we have? Don't we have vacancies currently twenty
two hundred and fifty vacancies for nurses.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yes, and some of those this is for specialized areas
and there are areas I've got for example.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
Right, Marjie, is it a case of we may have
vacancies for senior nurses which cannot be filled by graduates.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Correct, correct, But we would like to encourage our new
grad nurses. I've got a couple of hungred vacancies and
mental health for example, we'd be really keen to see
some of those roles with some HELPFULCE or good supervision.
Can you new grads can go into mental health rural
and provincial areas. We've got vacancies there that would like
to encourage new grads even if they have to shift,

(02:32):
and if we have to help them make that move,
you know, we'd like to put them to look at
those opportunities as well.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Yeah, brilliant. Hey, thanks for talking U throughout Marjori upper House,
New Zealand CEO. For more from the mic Asking Breakfast,
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