8826 (2025). Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall to the Minister of Health

8826 (2025). Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall to the Minister of Health: Why did he decide to fund 100 clinical placements specifically for overseas-trained doctors, rather than allocating those placements to New Zealand medical graduates?

Hon Simeon Brown: Our Government is focused on delivering timely, quality healthcare for all New Zealanders. As part of this, we want to grow our health workforce from both domestic graduates and people trained overseas. As the Member will be aware, I recently announced that additional medical school placements under our Government will increase to a total of 100 per year. Additionally, our Government will train up to 50 New Zealand-trained graduate doctors a year to train in primary care settings. I refer the Member to my press release: https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/more-locally-trained-doctors-primary-care