Director-General of Health seeks nominations

1 September 2008

Director-General of Health seeks nominations for RMO Workforce Commission

Director-General of Health Stephen McKernan has asked key stakeholders to recommend suitable candidates for an independent commission that will be established to look at the resident medical officer or junior doctor workforce.

The request came after the Ministry of Health released over the weekend the terms of reference for the Director-General of Health's Commission on the Resident Medical Officer Workforce.

“RMOs make a significant contribution to meeting the current and future service delivery needs of the public health system. This workforce faces a number of issues,” Mr McKernan said.

“The Commission’s role is to look at these issues and provide evidence-based recommendations to ensure we will have the right medical workforce to meet New Zealanders’ health needs,” he explained.

“The Ministry of Health consulted with a number of key organisations in developing the terms of reference for the Commission.
I’m now asking them to recommend people for membership to the Commission to progress this important work”.

“The training and support of doctors is a broad clinical issue and needs to be considered by the clinical community as a whole. I hope junior doctors and other key stakeholders take the opportunity to become fully involved in finding lasting, sustainable solutions to ensure a medical workforce that can deliver services to meet the health needs of all New Zealanders now and into the future,” Mr McKernan added.

The Commission will provide a final report to the Minister of Health, outlining its recommendations, on 6 April 2009.

ENDS

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