Due to a recent retirement, an exciting opportunity has arisen in the Eastern Bay of Plenty town of Whakatane, offering a coastal and semi-rural relaxed lifestyle
We’re seeking a Consultant Psychiatrist 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. Providing specialist knowledge and expertise, you will work in both the Acute Inpatient Service and the multi-disciplinary Community Mental Health team.
- Permanent or fixed term (12 months min)
- On call 08:00 – 08:00, supported by a crisis team
- Mix of clinical work, dedicated non-clinical time, and teaching
- Work with a diverse, multicultural population
- Beautiful natural surroundings – safe swimming harbour, white sandy beaches, native forest, dolphins, whales & orcas
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 and 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.
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.
The Service is a part of the RANZCP (Royal Australian & 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
With some of the best beaches in NZ on your doorstep such as Ohope, Mount Maunganui, Papamoa and Ohiwa, the town of Whakatane is 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 less than a 1 hr drive up the coast to Tauranga (NZ's 5th largest city) and therefore much more commutable. As a result, more people are moving into the area and the property market is really taking off. Properties are still very reasonably priced and 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 super easy.
Click on the links to find out more about the Bay of Plenty and Whakatane
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 most 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 and we can assist with the registration and work visa applications if you are successfully appointed.
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.
Please note, Caroline is based in New Zealand, having made the move back to NZ with her family in September 2017.