Hospital staffing revived
Dr Ralston D'Souza is seeing a turnaround in fortunes for staffing levels at Taupō Hospital.
Taupō Hospital has more than double the number of Senior Medical Officers it had just over a year ago.
By Dan Hutchinson
In July 2025, Health New Zealand confirmed it had just 3.3 of nine senior positions filled at the hospital.
Taupō Hospital Clinical Lead Dr Ralston D’Souza says they are now at 6.9 full-time equivalent senior medical officers “and due to be fully staffed for SMOs by early 2027”.
The hospital has gained accredited to deliver Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) training.
In a separate arrangement, senior doctors at the hospital supervise about 50 medical students each year from Auckland University across years 4, 5 and 6 on short-term (10-week) placements.
Last week Health New Zealand confirmed Taupō Hospital has been added to the Rural Medical Immersion Programme, allowing it to host three Year 5 medical students from Auckland University for a whole year.
Dr D’Souza says Taupō Hospital is well placed to deliver the much-needed rural training programme.
He says the Auckland University arrangement is separate from the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine.
“We are accredited to train New Zealand Division of Rural Hospital Medicine registrars and Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine registrars. These are two separate training programmes and till now we have only trained NZ rural registrars.”
He says the long-term exposure to a rural community means those students are more likely to return when they graduate.
“We’re already experiencing the benefits of this arrangement. Some of our students stay on to serve our community. For example, we have a house officer that used to be a 5th and 6th year medical student with us. We’re really glad that this arrangement will now continue long-term.”
He says Resident Medical Officers (qualified doctors working on advanced training) will play a key role in the delivery of the programme.
“Confirming this programme for the long term will improve professional development for our whole medical workforce and help strengthen our connection to the Taupo community.”
The additional senior doctors and students is a welcome relief for the hospital, compared with the middle of last year when contingency plans were drawn up by senior staff in case staff shortages forced the hospital to close its doors.
In July last year Radio New Zealand obtained a copy of the Escalation and Closure Plan for Taupō Hospital, which outlined what could happen if the hospital were forced to shut down due to not finding enough staff.
No closures eventuated, and Health NZ's top manager for the area, regional deputy chief executive Cath Cronin, told RNZ she wouldn't allow this and was focused on keeping the hospital open.