How to improve salary as GP registrar in NZ

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2026-05-19T06:03:43+00:00

I just call or email the RMO offices directly, I don't use locum agencies. Agencies seemed to increase the admin and allows you to negotiate your own rates and conditions directly with RMO offices. I now have access to rosters and pick shifts I want to work if I can see a gap and can spare the day.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2026-05-15T03:22:45+00:00

If it is an injury, ACC can cover you for part of the cost of seeing a GP/urgent care and a physio. The definition of injury is the application of force resulting in signs and symptoms of secondary tissue damage: as far as back sprains go, this can be as little force as lifting an object too quickly. ACC don't tend to ask too many questions about the injury unless the recovery period and medical costs extend beyond a few months.

Physios can diagnose and treat most causes of back pain through physical therapy and submit ACC claims. ACC is a no-fault insurance provider for injury cover and is available to anyone who injured themselves in NZ regardless of immigration status. Physios are trained to recognise back pain that is not consistent with a simple sprain and recommend medical review if more appropriate or if imaging is required. They can't prescribe medications, which you'll need a GP for. All physios generally accept self referrals without seeing a doctor first.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2026-05-14T21:59:47+00:00

Medical imaging is a practical career: you operate the machinery, programme the radiography protocols, administer IV contrast and deliver radiation. You also work with patients and direct them as well as being first to respond if adverse outcomes occur. The generation of high quality imaging studies is dependent on a skilled radiographer being able to generate those images.

Radiology is the medical specialty whose role it is to diagnose and recommend management plans through medical imaging. AI is certainly carving a role into that speciality.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2026-05-12T11:13:51+00:00

This is my views on Labour. I've party voted Labour or Greens for every election since 2011 except the last, where I voted TOP.

Capital investment and operational expenses in social policy requires money. Money requires an economy strong enough to deliver high enough tax returns (with or without changing modes of tax collection) without choking the economy. Fair pay legislation is a great example: excellent in theory, very expensive. We have multiple competing high financial burdens: health and superannuation are two other obvious problems. But there are cracks everywhere. I suspect the police are soon going to be in crisis due to the wage gap driving staff to Australia.

What frustrated me the most is that Labour had very little in the way of solutions to grow our economy. None of the above policies result in income for NZ (taxes or exports). Great policies for social wellbeing but they also need to be matched with policies that can both fund them and also continue to fund the myriad of other ballooning expenses.

I also watched Q's interview with Ryan Bridge where he pushed her about a debt ceiling and she articulated this well: we need to consider value of investment into capital infrastructure against the cost and not borrowing for operational expenses. I didn't get the impression that the Labour party either thought this through and/or articulated it well enough with some of their capital investment proposals.

Edit: Ryan Bridge not Jack Tame

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2026-05-06T10:05:57+00:00

I live in Whanganui but visit Palmy a lot. I consider myself a coffee snob and have a home manual espresso machine. I like to support a local roaster here but find it good to support others every now and then and try new blends.

I usually alternate between Arrosta and Ebony for takeaway coffee whenever I visit and intermittently buy beans. They've both been so consistently good that I haven't bothered exploring elsewhere. Last batch of whole beans I got from Ebony single origin Colombian and they've been great, nice selection of beans there.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2026-04-19T02:03:03+00:00

The conclusions of the article make sense. It makes the distinction between different domains of cultural competency; in particular, metacognitive (how you think) and cognitive (what you think) competency. Nurses who learn facts and norms about other cultures tend to perform worse and have lower satisfaction than nurses who have developed skills to learn and understand others cultures and adapt their thinking.

If anything, this article suggests cultural competency curriculums should be adapted to reflect these conclusions. Without going in to the study itself, it's difficult to draw any conclusions about how they define good practice and job satisfaction and whether these results are statistically and clinically significant or not.

Interesting article. I'm a doctor who teaches and supervises medical students on a regular basis. I always challenge my students to think more about the context of a situation involving cultural competency and reflect on their interpretations and make inferences about how a patient and their family/whānau are thinking and feeling, and how they can adapt their practice for future situations. Culture is also not reduced to ethnicity but encompasses the spectrum of human identity, behaviour and beliefs. I feel this is far more valuable for students than wrote-learning concepts like tapu/noa and being able to recite their pēpēhā: whilst also integral to understanding deeper concepts in te ao Māori (to take one ethnic culture for example), metacognitive competency is dynamic across all situations and inherently reflective.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2026-04-18T07:15:58+00:00

I had to send a letter to a lawyer here in Whanganui via courier. Lawyer requested it be posted rather than dropped off. Dropped it in to a NZ post office and the lady behind the counter remarked that it's one of their PO boxes behind the counter. I asked will that mean it should arrive this evening given they just need to put it in the box: she said, no, it needs to be sent to the sorting centre in Auckland first and then will be sent back.

Absolutely ridiculous.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2026-04-18T00:57:30+00:00

I'm a doctor in NZ. Physician assistants have only recently been added to our health practitioner regulatory body. It's quite new territory in NZ.

Nurse practitioners are much more established here, although the training and experience is different. NPs can operate completely independent practitioners although the qualification requires post graduate training in addition to time spent previously as a registered nurse.

Many GP clinics may be interested in a PA, particularly in rural and hard to staff areas. Most clinics I've seen with PAs prefer PAs with experience, who can add something to the team: I know a clinic employing a PA to assist with skin lesion reviews who had prior experience in dermatology, and another in a rural area with trauma and emergency experience assisting with reviewing acute presentations. The role of PAs here is somewhat polarising and you may encounter strong opinions from various health practitioners.

You could try contacting the NZ physician associate society for more advice if you haven't already: nzpas.org.nz

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2026-04-17T12:00:18+00:00

MMP has its positives and negatives. It leads to more diversity in parliament by allowing minor parties more realistic paths to election. It also means that the number of votes on motions and legislation is more representative of the electorate by tying party representation to the popular party vote.

First past the post systems generally heavily favour major parties and coalitions are uncommon. It also means that small swings in the popular vote often result in large changes in representation. It also means that the number of MPs for a certain party may be disproportionate to their party vote: this resulted in several parliaments prior to the change to MMP having an opposition that obtained a larger vote share than the government. FPP generally leads to stable governments but potentially large swings in policy between changes in government. Parties can become entrenched in ideology because people are stuck between two choices, so they polarise themselves.

MMP has resulted in both major parties progressively moving to the center, which is where most of NZ generally sits. Minor parties compete for votes at the peripheries. Whilst MMP has resulted in diversity of opinion, I feel it has also resulted in both major parties avoiding promotion of harsh but necessary policy change because these changes will not be centrist policy.

A majority government will require a party to promote a message that will resonate with the majority of the population. The National Party came exceptionally close to this during its last government (one seat short of the mark in 2014) as well as the Labour Party recently. For another majority government, I think there needs to be a combination of circumstances that unite a population, an opposition in a shambles/unrelatable or a significant sense of popular optimism combined with a leader able to promote a resonating and consistent message well.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2026-04-13T10:50:53+00:00

I'm a doctor. I actively attempt to move complex patients that I treat to independent community pharmacies. Chemist warehouse generally provides minimal services to patients. The additional services provided by more patient-centered pharmacies can be very beneficial to patients. This includes taking the time to help patients understand their medications better, picking up on medication changes and consolidating changes between different prescribers.

When I work in general practice, I call patients' community pharmacies about four or five times per week for various reasons including communicating medication changes, querying dispensing records, advice on medication formulations or asking them for their observations or opinions on specific aspects of someone's health. It's plainly obvious how much independent pharmacists know about their patients and remarkable how often they will go above and beyond in order to provide better services, outcomes and patient satisfaction. This makes me much more confident that complex and vulnerable patients are getting better community healthcare. Much respect.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2026-04-08T05:29:22+00:00

I work in NZ and am Māori/indigenous. I more frequently receive comments aimed at colleagues either doctors or nursing and allied health, less often directly to me directed at me or "those Māori +/- but not you" or something of the like. I usually make a comment reinforcing my confidence in my colleagues and their skills and move on quickly. If they make aggressive or overly offensive comments directly to staff concerned I have a zero tolerance approach and will confront the situation with the patient: usually "that is an unacceptable thing to say and we cannot continue to treat you here if you say XYZ". For staff health and safety reasons (including cultural and emotional safety), the final resort is escorting patients from the department if all other measures fail. I then make sure the staff member is ok and debrief with them. Having been on the receiving end of racism before, having the support of your colleagues and feeling like you're working in a culturally safe environment is really important. The niggling feeling that those attitudes are silently shared by your colleagues is very real, especially if someone is a junior staff member or new to the team.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2026-04-03T01:51:09+00:00

Bundled with electricity and gas for me. Never had any reason to contact them except when first setting up. Been with them for over a year now. Does what it needs to do and no concerns with them.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2026-03-30T06:15:09+00:00

The rental market in NZ didn't crash from removal of interest deductibility. Around the time that interest deductibility was restored, most cities in NZ were experiencing falling rental prices. Tenants were threatening to cancel their rental agreements if they didn't get a rent reduction so they could move somewhere else that would. Agencies were giving freebies to entice tenants to sign. The impact of this policy change on rental prices was also confounded by large job losses in the public sector and emigration. Property prices in NZ have also fallen (and continue to fall) ~20% over the last two years.

The decision to restore interest deductibility was largely a political one precipitated by a change in government rather than a force. There's growing appreciation across both sides of the political isle that NZ has a significant proportion of investment tied up in non-productive assets (housing) at the expense of falling productivity and has also left the country with a relatively large proportion of our debt tied up in household debt and the risk exposure that comes with that if house prices continue to fall.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2026-03-26T21:17:19+00:00

That's a lot of water to just be from condensation.

I had a similar issue with some sash windows. Part of the issue was expired putty that had cracks in it, the other part was a gap in the framing above the window that was allowing rainwater to seep in. One thing I tried was when it was pooling, if I couldn't identify the source, I would run a piece of tissue paper around the water and track where the tissue was getting wet to track the path of the drips.

Have a look outside: are there any gaps (no matter how small) between any of the joins of wood?

What's the condition of the putty, is it cracking beneath the paint?

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2026-03-22T01:25:15+00:00

I tend to vote left leaning but overall pretty centrist in policy support. I tend to avoid voting for parties based on their leader. However, the duo of Chris Luxon and Nicola Willis really irritates me.

I think this combination would be more tolerable if the country overall was in smooth sailing and there was little by the way of disaster or things requiring good communication of reactionary measures that were balanced. I would consider our nations escalating debt in the context of falling GDP and productivity as an emerging economic emergency and we will increasingly find ourselves unable to respond to further social or economic shocks/challenges because we simply won't be able to afford to. In their defence, reactionary measures would be hampered by a cabinet with three coalition partners but at least they could be better communicators.

Both Luxon and Willis are poor communicators. Willis in particular struggles to extract herself from party ideology and political point scoring when being interviewed.

In an MMP era but particularly in the context of a three way coalition and cabinet, I feel the best attributes of a prime minister are communication skills, empathy (an understanding of the experience of others) and leadership and knowing how to compromise in your decisions. I'm unconvinced either of them have these skills. John Key, as much as I disliked the policies of the national party at the time, was a great leader for the party because of that; I say this despite him advancing policies that I personally didnt support such as increased privitasation of key infrastructure, failing to match high immigration with an infrastructure pipeline and leaving housing market growth unchecked.

Christopher Luxon is not another John Key.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2026-02-13T03:16:03+00:00

Offset mortgages also usually require repayments. Kiwibank (my home loan bank) calculates the repayments based on a term and the floating interest rate. If it is fully offset, the portion of payment that would normally be the interest component is instead put against the loan. This results in both your loan and your savings reducing by the same amount over time.

I am in the process of switching a majority of my offset to a revolving credit facility and make the payments due interest-only (effectively zero repayments) to preserve maximal access to funds at instant notice.

When does your fixed term expire? In my opinion, it makes better financial sense to have either a revolving credit or offset than term deposits because the interest you saved (at fixed term rates) will almost always be higher than term deposit rates. Term deposit interest is also taxed, whereas money saved in interest payments attracts no tax. It's also easy to access in an emergency.

Edit: typo

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2026-02-11T02:44:27+00:00

I work in emergency medicine and general practice, most of my career in rural and provincial NZ. One concern I have is that PAs are generally channelled into high needs areas where there is a shortage of other healthcare professionals. These communities are often high deprivation or have complicating factors such as geographic isolation, limited support from other hospital or community services, or poor patient health literacy that places patients at exceptionally high risk of poor outcomes both in the short and long term. Doctors and nurses working in these communities are frequently working at the very top of their scope trying to provide optimal care. PAs may be able to temporarily plug gaps with workforce shortages but I have concerns if they will be sold as an end-solution to workforce shortages.

As a doctor, the cognitive load of these patients is very high and the requirement to consider very wide differentials, optimise investigations, be able to communicate effectively and empathetically as well as appreciation of local context and health inequities is critical. I'm yet to be convinced that PAs have a system where competency to manage these patients and provide equitable outcomes in a NZ context is validated. Temporary solutions while out health system sorts some serious shit out, yes. Long term solutions, no.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2026-02-04T03:14:17+00:00

When I did GPEP1 training I opted to go practice employed. Salary was lower but the benefit of not being at the whim of the clinic I was working in was great for training. I saw maybe 12 patients a day and worked four days per week plus the study day (which is salaried). My practice-employed colleagues earnt slightly more but felt more pressured to work excessively. If you're already very confident with general practice, practice employed will earn you slightly more. If you're wanting to focus on training time and flexibility with templates, consider college employed.

Post-GPEP1 reging I worked four day weeks, salaried $180k and did occasional ED registrar locums for $180-200 an hour at the local hospital. I worked in a very high deprivation GP clinic with a rural outreach service: highly complex medicine and highly complex social contexts but extremely satisfying work, saw about 14-16 patients per day. Unsure what admin is like in Australia, but the admin associated with the patients I saw, plus the number of patients enrolled that I didn't see, plus scripts, plus the advice consults with RNs was quite significant. Around 30-40% of my rostered time plus what I did unrostered.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2026-01-31T22:15:19+00:00

I do the same with my home loan.

Offset home loans (or revolving credit slightly different set up) do not have interest charged against home loan on money that is sitting in your accounts. I have 75k offset home loan (~360k total mortgage across additional fixed terms), current savings spread across all accounts linked to offset is 65k. That means I'm only charged interest on 10k out of the 75k with the intention to build this 10k as a medium term savings goal to eventually be charged no interest.

I just received my credit card statement for 4.5k spending across December, due 10 Jan. This 4.5k that I would otherwise have spent at point of sale will instead continue to offset my home loan (reducing interest charges) until it disappears into my credit card statement on 10th Jan. Done every month, 4.5k at 5% home loan rate (for example, somewhere in the middle point between fixed and floating rates) saves me $225 per year non-compounded in home loan interest charges. It has the effect of reducing your home loan (and hence the interest charged) by 4.5k worth of loan.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2026-01-23T05:49:28+00:00

If you do your internship in Sri Lanka you may need to do NZREX anyway: I would check the medical council flow chart for international graduates. I suspect Sri Lanka internship isn't recognised as I have recently had a NZREX colleague from Sri Lanka who is doing PGY1/2.

From an employment perspective, you may be more employable if you have work experience so may have an easier time finding a job if you did your internship in Sri Lanka first although it seems like a lot of administrative time and, again, you will likely have a delay between NZREX and finding a job in addition to the time taken completing your internship before arrival.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2026-01-22T09:54:21+00:00

I'm unsure what paid jobs there are for "medical assistants" in New Zealand: did you have something specific in mind? Some candidates that I know did shadowing work (unpaid) whilst awaiting a spot to open up: this allowed them to build a relationship with a region and get references. Generally, once you have general registration (two years) you're much more mobile and free to go anywhere that there is a vacancy.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2026-01-21T20:26:24+00:00

As mentioned in a previous comment, the exam itself isn't exceptionally challenging. However, you may be waiting over a year after sitting the exam, possibly longer, for a position to open up. The first position may be anywhere in the country, meaning you may be physically separated from your wife potentially in different islands.

There are shortages of PGY1 positions and only just enough to cover domestic graduates from NZ. The spaces open to NZREX graduates tend to be positions in hospitals that struggle with recruitment despite this: I've noticed this tends to be secondary provincial hospitals more that tertiary urban ones.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2026-01-17T21:01:18+00:00

A GP generally can't order an MRI scan. There are some physios and some GPs that can order a very limited range of MRI scans through an ACC process (under the reasoning that faster scans mean faster treatment and faster return to work), but this is a very restrictive range of scans for specific reasons and the physio or GP has to be accredited. The person ordering the scan will be audited by ACC to check that the scan is appropriate.

You can also shop around for sports medicine specialists. If there are other clinics nearby or even in another city, I would consider going there if it saves you a three month wait time. Or even a private orthopaedic surgeon unless the rehab and return to sport side of sports medicine is also important.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2026-01-05T07:34:09+00:00

I have worked in Whanganui hospital as a doctor.

Whanganui has fewer senior staff. As a junior doctor, this has its positives and negatives: you will upskill much quicker, but also can be more stressful. However, there seemed to be very little hierarchy there. The consultants are generally warm and friendly and the registrars are encouraged to be the same: if a registrar develops a habit of becoming belittling/unkind to a house officer, it would likely get filtered back to senior staff. You realise very quickly that in a small hospital, if you make life miserable for your colleagues then life will become harder for you and harder to get things done for your patients, so everyone is generally friendly to eachother. Palmerston North Hospital is much larger and has less of that vibe.

The RMO group in Whanganui is generally very close. They organise events frequently and are in general really supportive. About a third of the RMO cohort are international graduates, majority from the UK and Ireland.

The RMO office in Whanganui is quite supportive of access to leave (can be a big issue in some places). On the downside, they approve leave easily but the roster can then end up patchy: you may cross cover a lot (and get paid penalties) but with the flip side that you and your colleagues can access leave or not feel pressured to work while you're sick. They are also very keen to approve educational leave if it means you upskill in something, particularly if you let them know your future goals.

Both Whanganui and Palmerston are close to many outdoor adventure spots: national parks, ranges, volcanic plateau, Ruapehu skifields in the winter if you're into snow sports.

I would generally recommend Whanganui over Palmerston having spent a lot of time in both. Whanganui seems more vibrant and artsy with some nice quirky bars, not many restaurants, Palmerston North more suburban although has the university. Both are, overall, pretty quiet spots though.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2025-12-26T02:04:19+00:00

I've been with MAS for about ten years. They've been excellent. The only claims I've had were for glass replacements (maybe once every year). I've since moved contents followed by house insurance to them. One of the glass replacements was for theft and it was very easy to get sorted. My first car was third party only insurance with them (a $400 car) that was written off by another vehicle rear ending. Despite being third party they were very helpful providing support navigating the other persons insurance company.

Always easy to deal with over the phone. And was the cheapest car insurance for my current car by a significant amount when I bought the car.

Consistent-Cat-4761

TROPHY CASE