At its meeting on 22 May, the Executive Committee endorsed the strategy working group’s (SWG) recommended approach to the College’s support for the promotion and development of urgent care outside of Aotearoa New Zealand. The SWG met to discuss this as the College is experiencing a significant increase in the numbers of doctors based overseas wanting to complete the Fellowship training programme.

The College sees promotion of urgent care outside of New Zealand as important. The SWG recommended approach confirmed the College historical approach, with some refinement:

  • The College’s primary focus is on providing training and recertification for urgent care doctors in Aotearoa New Zealand.
  • Our expectation is that the promotion and development of urgent care in countries outside of New Zealand will be led by doctors in that country. The College will provide support within the limits of available resources.
  • The College will continue to allow doctors based outside of New Zealand to complete the Fellowship training programme, with the following conditions:
    • The College will make available all necessary policies to allow the potential applicant to assess the constraints and challenges that their application may encounter.
    • An application fee should be paid before the College engages with the potential applicant.
    • Any overseas doctor will be made aware that the training and Fellowship certificate is not necessarily recognised in their country.
    • Costs for the training programme, including training facility and supervisor approval, consideration of alternative courses to satisfy the Fellowship regulations or training programme requirements, ongoing training progress monitoring, and annual fee, will be set to ensure that the College can continue to sustainably provide the programme to overseas doctors.
    • The College will apply the same standards for overseas registrars as New Zealand-based registrars.

The SWG also recommended that the College consider:

  • Changing society rules so that overseas members are not able to vote at society general meetings.
  • Employing a Fellow and administrator to manage overseas registrars’ progress through the training programme.