Ensuring that you receive quality frontline health services in New Zealand is a priority for National.
I am proud to lead a Government that is delivering this for you and your family.
Doctors, nurses, and midwives are the face of our health system. They are also the backbone of many of the health services we all need throughout our lives.
When National came into Government, many of our best and brightest young medical professionals were leaving New Zealand.
That is why, in our first year, we introduced a voluntary bonding scheme for medical graduates. The scheme rewards graduate doctors, nurses and midwives who commit to working in hard-to-staff areas for three to five years, with payments against their student loans.
The voluntary bonding scheme has been extremely successful, and we now have more than 1800 young people signed up.
We have also increased the places at medical schools by 120 towards our goal of 200 more places over five years. This is great news for young New Zealanders who might be considering a career in the health profession.
We have increased the number of GP training places by 50 since 2008.
District Health Boards have employed 800 additional doctors throughout New Zealand, and over 2000 more nurses, since we took office.
National has made health a priority because we know how important it is that you can rely on the New Zealand public health service.
We are seeing such great results because National has made the biggest ever investment in health. Despite the tough economic climate, we are now spending $1.5 billion more a year on public health service than the previous Government.
This year we are spending $14 billion in total on health, the most ever.
National is delivering on its promise to provide better, sooner, more convenient health care. We will continue our hard work to improve frontline services so that you and your family can rely on them.
John Key is Prime Minister of New Zealand. The above article is exclusive to Indian Newslink ©
