20725 (2025). Ingrid Leary to the Minister of Health

20725 (2025). Ingrid Leary to the Minister of Health: How many new medical school places were created in 2024?

Hon Simeon Brown: As part of our Government's focus on delivering access to timely, quality healthcare for all New Zealanders, we want to grow our health workforce from both domestic graduates and people trained overseas. As the Member will be aware, Budget 2024 provided an increase of 25 places from 589 to 614 places, starting 2025. This was on top of an increase of 50 places in 2024. As the Member will also be aware, I recently announced that an additional 25 medical school placements will be funded in 2026 bringing the total increase in medical school places during the term of this Parliament to 100. 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 recent press release: https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/more-locally-trained-doctors-primary-care