22-07-2025
News of new medical school welcomed in Waikato
By Libby Kirkby-McLeod of RNZ
The announcement of a new medical school at the University of Waikato has been welcomed by local business, community, and medical leaders.
The government confirmed yesterday it will fund $82.5 million of the school, with the university paying the remaining $150 million, backed by philanthropists. 'Otago is being overlooked'
Waikato Chamber of Commerce chief executive Don Good said he had no concerns about the university being able to secure the money needed to get the New Zealand Graduate School of Medicine off the ground.
"There are some very wealthy families in the Waikato that you probably have never heard of, and they are very community-minded," he said.
Good said people who made money in the Waikato put it back into the region.
While he spoke warmly about people in Waikato, he was not so impressed with some of the actions of those outside the region.
He said there had been a long-running campaign against a Waikato medical school by the existing medical schools in Auckland and Otago.
But the Dean of the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences in Auckland, Professor Warwick Bagg, told Morning Report that while the university had put forward its case against a third school, it was pleased that the government had invested so heavily in medical student training.
"If you are a patient waiting to see a doctor you are going to be pleased that in the years to come we will have more locally trained doctors to see, I think that's really good news," he said.
Kawhia is a small coastal settlement west of Ōtorohanga, where John Burton has been a local GP for 33 years.
He said he was thrilled the new medical school was happening and he wished it had happened 20 years ago.
Dr Burton has trained many student doctors over the years and said he enjoyed it.
But he said rural practices currently spent a lot of time training the wrong people and he was looking forward to students who were not coming from the big cities.
"We have a lot of medical students come here, down from Auckland, and they all say they love it, it's wonderful experience, but for the majority of them they're Aucklanders and this is a foreign world for them and although it's a lovely adventure, it's not what they're going to end up doing."
Rural Health Network chair Dr Fiona Bolden said students from rural areas who trained rurally were six times more likely to work as a rural doctor.
Down the country a bit from Kawhia, Waitomo Mayor John Robertson said a Waikato-based medical school was a positive announcement for young people in his town.
He said proximity to training opportunities was important.
"The fact that it's so close is an advantage, and for some students they can live in the area, get a bus up to Hamilton each day," he said.
A University of Waikato spokesperson told RNZ the New Zealand Graduate School of Medicine would be located within a new Division of Health precinct.
Detailed designs were under way and work was expected to start later this year after the main contract had been awarded and the building consent had been received.
The university said it also had plans for dedicated student accommodation next to the Health Precinct for medical school students.
The first students are expected to be welcomed in 2028.
