increase font size
NZ Rural General Practice Network chair Dr Fiona Bolden.
Dr Fiona Bolden says the rural health services are under huge pressure.
She says there are plenty of places where you can't even see a GP at all and adds that rural hospitals are having real difficulty trying to see people.
Bolden says many in the rural health workforce are coming up for retirement and have just about had enough. But she says many are staying on out of a sense of responsibility to their communities and many are burnt out.
"The rural health service is limping along on the good will of its people and is further complicated by what's happening with nursing," she told Rural News. "Nurses working in practices get paid far less than those working for the DHBs and practices get no funding for nurses."
Rural News did approach the Minister of Health's office for comment, but they did not respond.
Grace Su, a recent optometry graduate from the University of Auckland, is moving to Tauranga to start work in a practice where she worked while participating in the university's Rural Health Interprofessional Programme (RHIP).
In an ever-changing world, things never stay completely the same. Tropical jungles can turn into concrete ones criss-crossed by motorways, or shining cities collapse into ghost towns.
The Government wants to make sure that rural communities get a level of service that people who live in cities often complacently expect.
Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ) says it welcomes recently announced consultation on Pharmac’s funding of ostradiol patches used by women going through perimenopause and menopause.
The director of Otago University’s new virtual Centre for Rural Health says there’s no one, single fix to the burgeoning staffing crisis facing the sector.
The Beef + Lamb New Zealand (B+LNZ) annual meeting held in Timaru today saw directors' fees raised and the appointment of KPMG as an auditor for the levy body.
A new Westpac NZ community banking van begins making visits around Northland this week.
New Zealand Food Safety (NZFS) is sharing guidance to prevent people from contracting listeriosis, a rare yet life-threatening foodborne illness.
As cost-of-living pressures continue to bite Kiwi households, the Fruit in Schools (FIS) programme is helping fuel learning and improve the health and wellbeing of 127,000 children and staff.
OPINION: Public opinion, political pragmatism and commercial and market reality have caused the Government to abandon introducing legislation into Parliament to legalise the shipment by sea of live animals - mainly cows - to overseas destinations.
Safer Farms has welcomed its first three regional champions that will be taking the Farm Without Harm message directly into their rural communities.
