Source: Royal NZ College of General Practitioners
The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners welcomes the Minister of Health’s announcement today at GP25: Conference for General Practice of significant additional funding for registrars across the General Practice Education Programme (GPEP).
This announcement will go a long way to strengthen the training and grow the next generation of the specialist GP workforce, and includes:
- In 2025, training fees for doctors in their second, third, and post-third year of GPEP to encourage completion of their training.
- Fellowship assessment costs for around 200 GPEP trainees to enable them to complete their training and become Fellows.
- From 2026, full ongoing training and education costs for an estimated 400 GPEP year 2 and 3 trainees each year.
Currently, GP registrars only have their first year of GPEP funded with the second and third years having to be self-funded. This funding approach is different to all the other medical training programmes (in New Zealand and Australasian medical colleges) that are fully funded for their entirety.
College President Dr Samantha Murton says, “This funding will be a gamechanger for current and future trainees. This is a significant acknowledgement for the specialism of the general practice workforce and the vital role we play in healthcare being as important as those of our peers in secondary hospital settings.
“Not only will this funding offer the necessary financial support our GP registrars need throughout their training, but we are optimistic that the news will encourage medical graduates who have an interest in general practice but have been put off by the financial barriers to make the step to train as a specialist GP. To them, I say welcome and you won’t regret your decision.
The College has been a strong and vocal advocate for the current and future general practice workforce and is enthusiastic that the funding for primary care is heading in the right direction to ensure that it is sustainable.
College Chief Executive Toby Beaglehole says, “We are focused on building a sustainable workforce for the future, which starts with training and the equitability of our program costs to other specialist medical training.
“This funding s
