Royal College of GPs celebrates 10 new rural fellows

This is the largest cohort to receive the fellowship in a year since the College started offering the training programme.

The College is the post-graduate training organization for doctors wanting to specialise in general practice, rural hospital medicine, or both.

Dr Andrew Morgan, chair of DRHM, says that having another 10 rural hospital medicine Fellows working across New Zealand will have a real impact on the rural workforce and the communities they serve.

“Working rurally is different to working in a metropolitan or urban hospital setting,” Morgan says. “We deliver hospital level care, with some primary care, in isolated settings and often without easy access to other resources or support.”

“However, we do share commonalities with our GP peers, primarily because we both work in very generalist specialties and many of our rural hospital medicine registrars also complete the general practice training programme,” he says.

College president Dr Samantha Murton says that while the ethos of specialist GPs and rural hospital doctors is the same – to provide comprehensive, complex care to patients and improve health outcomes for their communities – there are differences in training requirements and the ways the two different type of doctor work once they become specialists.

“I’m delighted that we’ve got 10 new, passionate rural hospital doctors who’ll be able to get stuck into some incredibly interesting, rewarding and challenging work in some of the most beautiful parts of Aotearoa, while continuing their ongoing learning from those who’ve been working rurally for many years,” Murton says.

“It’s great to see the numbers increasing as Rural Hospital Medicine is one of the key parts of the College’s strategy to make a sizeable impact as we work towards a more equitable and accessible healthcare system,” she says.

“I look forward to meeting our newest Rural Hospital Medicine Fellows and saying congratulations when they cross the stage at our Fellowship and Awards ceremony in July.”