Minister of health, Tony RyallTuesday 29 June 2010, 2:33PM
Media release from Minister of health, Tony Ryall
The Government's voluntary bonding scheme for graduate doctors,
nurses and midwives has been over subscribed for the second year in
a row with a total of around 1,400 graduates now accepted into the
scheme, says Health Minister Tony Ryall.
"This year we have accepted 501 graduates - 64 doctors, 45 midwives
and 392 nursing graduates - onto the scheme which aims to keep our
home grown health graduates living and working in New
Zealand."
"We budgeted for 350 grads but got 501 applications. We've accepted
them all. This is on top of last year's inaugural intake of around
900 young health professionals."
The voluntary bonding scheme encourages graduate doctors, nurses
and midwives to establish careers in communities and medical
specialties that need them most by offering them student loan write
offs, or cash incentives for those without student loans, if
they work in these areas for three to five years.
The scheme is designed to be flexible and responsive to changing
sector needs.
This year South Canterbury and Taranaki District Health Boards were
added to the list of hard to staff regions, and surgical nursing
was added to the list of hard to staff specialties which qualify
for the scheme.
The full list of hard-to-staff categories and the terms and
conditions of the Scheme are available on the bonding website www.moh.govt.nz/bonding