{"id":644491,"date":"2026-10-29T04:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T04:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/644491\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T04:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T04:44:09","slug":"northland-rural-training-hub-aims-to-improve-rural-healthcare-access","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/644491\/","title":{"rendered":"Northland Rural Training Hub aims to improve rural healthcare access"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Rural Training Hub would help train more health professionals closer to the communities they would serve, across M\u0101ori health, primary, community and hospital services<\/a>, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cRural communities know that when you train people locally<\/a>, they\u2019re far more likely to stay local. That\u2019s exactly what these hubs are designed to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rural Training Hubs have already been rolled out in the past year in South Taranaki<\/a>, Wairoa and the West Coast.<\/p>\n

Funding for Northland\u2019s Rural Training Hub, plus any extra money to keep clinicians in rural areas once they were trained, was not guaranteed beyond a dedicated programme lead, said Dr Jeff Brown, Health New Zealand chief adviser education (medical).<\/p>\n

It would be up to the programme lead to look at the rural training already in Northland and work out what was needed<\/a>, from placements to pastoral care, he said.<\/p>\n

\"AssociateAssociate Health Minister Matt Doocey (centre, front) attended a p\u014dwhiri in Whang\u0101rei for the announcement alongside Paraone Tai Tin (front left) and Health New Zealand education adviser Jeff Brown (right). Photo \/ Denise Piper<\/p>\n

The Rural Training Hub was deliberately non-prescriptive so Te Tai Tokerau could decide what it needed and how it wanted to govern this, he said.<\/p>\n

Brown, a paediatrician who trained in Northland in the 1980s, said he never forgot seeing Northland settlements with no roads and no power, and wondering how those people accessed healthcare.<\/p>\n

He agreed it was more expensive to both train and retain clinicians in rural settings.<\/p>\n

But Brown thought there could be some money in the Health Budget\u2019s $33.5 billion envelope to be shifted to more rural funding, as long as it was going to the right place.<\/p>\n

He gave an example from H\u0101wera of hospital and general practice nurses training together.<\/p>\n

Health New Zealand group director of operations for Te Tai Tokerau, Alex Pimm, agreed there was a need for better relationships \u2013 particularly between hospitals and primary care, who were almost competing for nurses<\/a> at present.<\/p>\n

\"HauoraHauora Hokianga chief executive Margareth Broodkoorn says she supports the idea of a Rural Training Hub specifically for Te Tai Tokerau.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe [Health New Zealand hospitals] are relying on primary care to take patients once they\u2019ve finished their secondary care \u2013 it\u2019s important to us.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot more we can do out of the hub, there are opportunities where we can work together or have joint appointments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hauora Hokianga chief executive Margareth Broodkoorn, who attended the announcement on behalf of Northland M\u0101ori health providers, said she supported the idea of a Rural Training Hub specifically for Te Tai Tokerau.<\/p>\n

She still had some questions about how the programme would work but saw potential in what was proposed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the collectivity of bringing it all together and not having to travel three hours to get to some training, it\u2019s hugely beneficial.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denise Piper is a news reporter<\/a> for the Northern Advocate, focusing on health and business. She has more than 20 years in journalism and is passionate about covering stories that make a difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Rural Training Hub would help train more health professionals closer to the communities they would serve, across…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[542,2840,4886,17240,134,527,5838,6215,15221,111,139,1067,69,381,3175,61,8812,18370],"class_list":["post-644491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-access","tag-across","tag-aims","tag-grow","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-help","tag-hub","tag-improve","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-northland","tag-nz","tag-region","tag-rural","tag-to","tag-training","tag-workforce"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}