How we fought for your Waikato Medical School

Tuesday, 22 July 2025

Take a virtual tour of what new Waikato medical school could be like

Waikato success in hosting the country’s newest medical school ends almost a decade of struggle to get GPs trained for what Kiwis need, right here in the heart of the bustling region.

And the Waikato Times has been there every step of the way.

Christopher Luxon announced on Monday afternoon that the long-mooted plan would finally get the go ahead.

The deal will see the government chip in $82m and the university fund the remaining $150 million.

The four-year programme will begin in 2028, with the first cohort graduating and entering the workforce in 2032.

The idea was simple - take people keen to work in rural general practice who haven’t necessarily come straight from the academic hothouse but who have the other skills needed to be a good doctor, and train them in the sort of place where they are desperately needed.

But making the New Zealand Graduate School of Medicine reality has been a journey almost a decade long.

The Hamilton-based medical school was seriously suggested as far back as 2016, when Waikato University and the then-Waikato District Health Board announced a joint bid to establish the country's third med school.

The Waikato Times reignited its campaign Fighting For Our Med School back in 2024.

It wasn’t always smooth sailing.

The mysterious departure of scheme proponent and former Waikato District Health Board boss Dr Nigel Murray pulled the wind from the project’s sails in 2017.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Health Minister Simeon Brown announced the sign-off for a third medical school based in Waikato following Cabinet on Monday. (file)

And later that year it became something of a political football, with Labour announcing before that year’s general election it wasn’t a fan of the proposal, while National put it in its manifesto.

An artist impressions of what the new Waikato medical school will look like.

But Waikato Times editor Jonathan MacKenzie said the paper backed the project regardless of the politicians involved because it would make life better - not just for people in the Waikato, but the wider country, once the programme started churning out doctors.

“We fought for it because it was a bloody good idea and it made sense. The numbers stacked up.”

University of Waikato Vice-Chancellor Neil Quigley mooted the medical school as far back as 2016.

“We need more doctors and anyone can see that with a walk up Victoria St where queues of people wait outside the no-appointment surgery.”

The paper also reported on a co-ordinated effort from the country’s existing two medical schools to prevent the proposal from going ahead, instead pitching more places and rural training on their existing programmes, despite the country relying on that same system for decades. The government decided Waikato made more sense.

“We knew it was going to be a tough fight,” said MacKenzie. “Auckland and Otago were considerable contestants with a lot of backing and it was going to be tough to break that monopoly.”

The Waikato Times believed so much it also put its money where its mouth was.

In 2017 the Times sent a reporter and visual journalist to Australia to check out a similar GP training programme that had made a big difference to the people it served.

The Waikato Times travelled to Flinders University in Adelaide to assess the results of its rural GP training scheme.

From the lecture theatres of Flinders University in Adelaide to the dusty roadsides of Lameroo in heartland Australia, the team found out how their medical school helped reverse a shortage of healthcare workers and how it could work for the Waikato too.

It was an issue on which the paper never gave up, explaining to readers that a truly healthy community was one with access to a doctor they could get to know and trust.

But it was something they already knew, with scores of letters to the editor backing the project.

Following the health crisis of the Covid years the need became more apparent as a Waikato University team, led by Vice-Chancellor professor Neil Quigley, and other significant advocates like Momentum Waikato worked behind the scenes.

Buildings at Waikato University have already been cleared with expectation of the medical school project, seen here in artist’s impression, going ahead.

By 2025, the case was building and it all came to fruition with Monday’s announcement.

Quigley called it a landmark moment.

“We will be offering a programme that selects and trains doctors in a fundamentally different way and will complement New Zealand’s two existing medical schools. It will be designed to produce more graduates who choose to become GPs and who want to work in regional and rural communities.”

Pro Vice-Chancellor Health, Professor Jo Lane, said the school would “train the doctors New Zealand needs”.

“Our curriculum will prioritise clinical placements in regional and rural health settings, allowing graduates to experience working with diverse populations while building deep connections in the communities they serve.”.

On mainstreet Waikato, Chamber of Commerce boss Don Good said the move boosted the country and the region.

“It will also attract talented students, researchers, and professionals to Waikato, boosting our innovation ecosystem and supporting the prosperity of local businesses.”

That’s something we can all look forward to.