Fantastic lifestyle for you and the family.
Due to a recent retirement, an exciting opportunity has arisen in the Eastern Bay of Plenty town of Whakatane.
We’re seeking a Consultant Psychiatrist (Community) with broad experience to work in a small local team in the Mental Health & Addiction Service, which is part of a larger district-wide service across the Bay of Plenty.
Whakatane offers a coastal and semi-rural relaxed lifestyle. The Bay of Plenty region is now one of the fastest growing regions in New Zealand, attracting both kiwi and overseas migrants to the area.
With some of the best beaches in NZ on your doorstep such as Ohope, Mount Maunganui, Papamoa and Ohiwa, its ideal for those who love the great outdoors. Locals enjoy easy access to a fantastic untouched natural environment, which lends itself to such outdoor pastimes as surfing, paddle boarding, fishing, sailing, swimming, mountain biking and hill walking etc.
A new main highway has opened up access to the region considerably and its now only a 1 hr drive up the coast to Tauranga City. As a result, more people are moving into the area and the property market is really taking off.
- Permanent full time role
- FRANZCP or equivalent specialist qualifications
- Mix of clinical work, dedicated non-clinical time, and teaching
- Work with a diverse, multicultural population
- Beautiful natural surroundings – white sandy beaches, native forest & birds, dolphins, whales & orca
The Role
In this role you will be working with a community mental health and addictions multidisciplinary clinical team, the acute inpatient unit at Whakatane Hospital, non-government funded organisations as well as primary care providers. You will work with Whakatane and Tauranga clinicians in a number of cross-district service relationships that include general adult, consultation liaison, child and adolescent, addiction and mental health services for older people.
We are looking for a Psychiatrist who has a passion for service development and an interest in education, teaching and research, and who will settle into the local community and provide a vital and valuable specialist service. There is opportunity to work with Auckland University Medical School students and Psychiatry Registrars.
The Service
Mental health and addiction services are provided for a population of 220,000 across the Bay of Plenty and are divided into Western BOP (Tauranga) and Eastern BOP (Whakatane). The community mental health and addiction teams are multi-disciplinary teams which comprise of Psychiatrist, Registrar, Clinical Psychologist(s), Registered Nurses, Social Workers, Occupational Therapists and a Team Leader. There is an after-hours crisis service based in Tauranga and in Whakatane, an after-hours contact. The Adult inpatient service has 34 beds; 10 are located in Whakatane and 24 in Tauranga. Intensive patient care is offered in each unit. In addition, there are district-wide specialist services for adult addiction children and young people (CAMHS), older people (MHSOP) and Consultation Liaison Psychiatry (CL).
Afterhours the psychiatrist on call may be required to provide assessments and oversight of treatment for patients needing to access these services.
In the Western BOP, Adult Community Mental Health and Addiction Services are delivered by two teams (North and South) based in Tauranga. Three psychiatrists work in each team and provide clinical leadership for the multidisciplinary community teams in partnership with the team leader. The psychiatrists work across the community and inpatient services. The work is distributed by a geographical model. The intention is collaborative practice and continuity of care between inpatient and community settings.
There is one team (East) in the Eastern BOP based in Whakatane and two psychiatrists who also work in a partnership model with the team leader. The psychiatrists in the eastern BOP work with the same model across the community and inpatient service described above and work is allocated in a similar way.
BOPDHB is a branch of the RANZCP (Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists) Upper Central North Island training programme. All psychiatry registrar runs are accredited for basic training and many for advanced training. There are eight registrars working in the service, including one non training registrar in Whakatane.
What’s on offer?
- Total package circa NZ$180,000 - $280,000 pa, depending on level of experience
- Includes base salary range NZ$158,141 - $230,000 pa (£82,700 - £120,000) depending on level of experience
- Annual $16,000 Continuing Medical Education allowance & 10 days CME leave to attend conferences
- Multidisciplinary team working
- Plus relocation assistance
The Location
Whakatane is only 1 hour drive away from Tauranga City, the 5th largest city in NZ. Real estate is very reasonably priced and properties can range from apartment style living, to large detached houses with a garden, or even lifestyle blocks with a couple of acres of land attached. There are daily flights from Whakatane to Auckland, making international flight connections easy.
The team in Whakatane works closely with the base hospital site in Tauranga. Together, the two sites cater to a regional population of 230,000.
Find out more about the Bay of Plenty and Whakatane here
It’s a very nice way of life if you prefer not to be in a city and to be close to the ocean, the community is welcoming and the living is definitely relaxed.
Requirement for this role
Ideally you will hold FRANZCP and full Vocational registration with Medical Council of New Zealand (MCNZ).
Alternatively, if not NZ trained or based, you will hold equivalent specialist qualifications, e.g. MRCPsych & CCT, which are eligible for Provisional Vocational registration (long term) or Locum Tenens registration (short term up to 12 months and takes only 30 days to process). These are the specialist pathways for medical registration in NZ as a Psychiatrist.
Please visit the MCNZ website for details on the medical registration requirements, including primary source verification of your qualifications which was introduced by MCNZ 1st November 2017.
For more details, please contact Caroline at caroline@headmedical.com with a copy of your CV.
Primary Source Verification using EPIC
All relevant qualifications must now be verified by ECFMG using the EPIC system on behalf of the Medical Council of New Zealand. We recommend starting this off during the recruitment process, so it is already underway early on especially if you hold qualifications from locations other than NZ. Candidates can log on to EPIC and complete this step online very easily. Starting this as early as possible will prevent delays if your University or Medical Specialist College do not respond quickly to verification requests from ECFMG via EPIC.
Log on to EPIC here and read the FAQs section about how to get started.