April 29 2010

Dear colleague
This week Health Workforce New Zealand (HWNZ) publishes its first annual plan.

As Chair of HWNZ, I want to ensure that professional and staff representative organisations and healthcare providers have an opportunity to see the plans we have outlined for 2010/11 and to provide us with feedback.

This is an important transition year. HWNZ is newly established and will be putting systems and processes in place to ensure the best possible workforce for our health and disability sector.

We know the challenges New Zealand faces, particularly in retaining our talented clinical workforce, and are determined to create excellent and flexible career opportunities, as well as applying the best techniques in planning to ensure we have a fit for purpose of health workforce.

We have also identified our workforce priorities for primary care and elective surgery, a focus on recruiting and retaining junior doctors, and funding demonstration sites that test the utility of new roles.

The plan has been put together following discussion with a wide range of organisations and we expect them to change and develop further with your ongoing input. My colleagues on HWNZ and I are committed to working in partnership with organisations and individuals responsible for planning and delivering services to patients.

Through continued dialogue we can ensure that the priorities of HWNZ reflect the priorities of the New Zealand health system.

To help facilitate that dialogue we are holding our first stakeholder forum in June this year and we will be creating other opportunities for both formal and informal engagement with our work.

Please do take the time to look at the high level plan we have published on our website at www.healthworkforce.govt.nz

HWNZ invites you to indicate where you see a role for your organisation in the work programme and welcomes your thoughts on how we can work closely with you in the future. Contact us at info@healthworkforce.govt.nz

We are also finalising our investment and purchasing advice outlining the numbers and types of postgraduate training places proposed for the coming years to meet the changing needs of our health system. A copy of this plan will be available on our website shortly.

Best wishes

Professor Des Gorman
Chair, Health Workforce New Zealand