Rural Women New Zealand has expressed concerns over the estimated 24% shortage of the health workers by the year 2021. It is worried that the shortfall may have adverse affect on the rural communities in the country.

These statistics have been mentioned in the recently released report from the Health Ministry.

The Ministry believes that the predicted shortage of as many as 23,000 regulated health staff workers would chiefly affect the people living in rural and provincial parts of the nation.

Kerry Maw, who is the health spokesperson of Rural Women New Zealand, said that disunited health Board system of New Zealand has all the more worsened the situation.

Ms. Maw said, “We can bring the rural voice to the planning table. As a national organisation we can provide a more global view to service delivery than the 21 separate DHBs currently do”.

Ms. Maw further said that there is a need to assess advanced training, financial support, and resourcing of local service providers, like rural Nurse Practitioners and homecare personnel.

She also stated that health care should not be based on a ‘post code’ system, where the health services are made available according to the place where one lives.