28 March 2025
Sandra Anderson
[FYI request #28532 email]
Tēnā koe Sandra
Your request for official information, reference: HNZ00076945
Thank you for your email on 26 January 2025, asking Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora in your
follow up email for the following under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act):
I request the same information as outlined in my original request, but specifically limited to
Auckland City Hospital and North Shore Hospital. I believe narrowing the focus to these two
hospitals will provide the clarity I am seeking.
Furthermore, I found that the Health Workforce Information Programme link provided did
not fully address my queries, so any further details you can offer would be greatly
appreciated.
Original Request:
1. The number of General Medicine Registrars in New Zealand per district for each of the
last five years.
2. The number of Junior Registrars in New Zealand per district for each of the last five
years.
3. The number of registrars who progressed to registrar positions as PGY3 (Postgraduate
Year 3) versus PGY4 and above for each of the last five years.
4. The number of Senior Registrars per district, broken down by specialty, for each of the
last five years.
5. Data on the distribution and equity of Senior Registrars across all districts over the past
five years.
6. For each of the last five years, please provide the average number of weeks of annual
leave actually taken by Medical Registrars, categorized by Junior and Senior
Registrars, and broken down by district.
7. For each of the last five years, please provide the following information regarding
annual leave for Medical Registrars, categorized by Junior and Senior Registrars, and
broken down by district:
a. The total number of annual leave requests submitted.
b. The total number of annual leave requests that were denied.
c. The total number of weeks of annual leave requested.
d. The total number of weeks of annual leave that were denied.
Additionally, if there is a shortage of registrars, I would like to understand how PGY1 positions are
being managed to ensure that the pipeline allows for an appropriate number of General Medicine
Registrars by district. Specifically:
8. For each of the last five years, please provide the number of PGY1 (Postgraduate Year
1) positions available versus the number of applicants in each district, to determine if
PGY1 positions are oversubscribed in certain districts.
9. What specific measures have been taken or are planned to align the number of PGY1
positions with the future needs for General Medicine Registrars across all districts?
Please provide details of any workforce planning strategies or programs implemented in
the past five years.
10. How does the distribution of PGY1 positions across districts impact the availability and
recruitment of General Medicine Registrars in subsequent years? Please provide any
analyses or data that illustrate this impact over the past five years.
Response
The number of General Medicine Registrars in New Zealand per district for each of the last
five years.
The number of Junior Registrars in New Zealand per district for each of the last five years.
The number of Senior Registrars per district, broken down by specialty, for each of the last
five years.
When determining whether a Medical Registrar is either Junior or Senior, we have used the
training programme stage loaded against the individual Resident Medical Officer (RMO) in our
records. It is important to note that this
information may/may not have been up to date as it relies
on Registrars advising the employer when they have completed the Part 1 exam and moved into
advanced training.
• Junior is where the Registrar has NOT been identified as having passed the Part 1 examination
(both written and clinical) and loaded in the Human Resource Information System (HRIS)
placement database as a basic trainee.
• Senior is where the Registrar has been identified as having passed the Part 1 examination
(both written and clinical) and loaded in the HRIS placement database as an advanced trainee.
• Non-Training is where the Registrar has not been identified as a trainee in the Royal
Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) vocational training programme. For the 31 January
2025 data the Non-Training Registrar numbers may not be entirely accurate as trainees have
until the end of February to apply to RACP.
• The specialty is Adult Medicine. For a further breakdown to sub-specialty level, the information
is held by the Royal Australasian College of Physicians.
Note:
• General Medicine Registrars are all Medical Registrars (noted above)
• Non-Training Medical Registrars are Medical Registrars employed in the years specified
who were not on the Australasian RACP vocational training programme
• Data has been provided at two snapshot dates for each year over the past 5 years
• Medical Registrar rotations are 26 weeks in duration and wherever possible snapshot dates
have been provided on 31 January and 31 July. Where registrar rotation has occurred after
these snapshot dates the rotation start date has been used (2021 and 2022). Snapshot
dates are as follows;
o (2020) 31 January 2020 and 31 July 2020
o (2021) 2 February 2021 and 2 August 2021
o (2022) 1 February 2022 and 1 August 2022
o (2023) 31 January 2023 and 31 July 2023
o (2024) 31 January 2024 and 31 July 2024
o (2025) 31 January 2025
1, 2, 4: Number of registrars per district for each of the last five years
31-Jan-20
31-Jul-20
2-Feb-21
2-Aug-21
1-Feb-22
1-Aug-22
31-Jan-23
31-Jul-23
31-Jan-24
31-Jul-24
31-Jan-25
Auckland
116
123
121
127
125
116
115
113
115
105
121
Senior
67
66
68
76
74
66
62
64
62
56
59
Junior
46
56
53
51
48
49
52
47
50
47
60
Non-Training
3
1
3
1
1
2
3
2
2
Med REG
Waitematā
81
79
82
85
90
82
81
71
83
81
86
Senior
28
26
28
27
25
26
25
23
25
25
24
Junior
52
52
53
57
63
55
55
47
57
54
59
Non-Training
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
2
3
Med REG
Please note that this data is provisional and used for operational purposes. It has not been through the full quality assurance process that we use
before publishing data and therefore is subject to change.
The number of registrars who progressed to registrar positions as PGY3 (Postgraduate
Year 3) versus PGY4 and above for each of the last five years.
The data where an RMO has progressed from House Officer to a Registrar position only includes
instances where this has occurred whilst the RMO was employed within the Auckland Metro
Region Districts (Te Toka Tumai Auckland, Counties Manukau and Waitematā) as part of this
progression. The data does not include where the RMO has been employed at a District outside
the Auckland region or Districts as a House Officer before progressing to a Registrar position at
either Te Toka Tumai or Waitematā District. This information is not held in the HRIS placement
database, and we are unable to identify this information without a manual collation of data for the
5-year period.
Post graduate year (PGY) has been determined based on the RMO’s House Officer salary scale in
the year prior to progressing to the Medical Registrar position. Where the RMO was PGY4 or
above when they progressed to the Medical Registrar position these have been listed as PGY4.
The majority of House Officer to Registrar progressions occur in January at the training year
changeover with smaller numbers ad-hoc during the training year. Wherever possible progression
occurs at the commencement of a run rotation.
Please note that this data is provisional and used for operational purposes. It has not been through
the full quality assurance process that we use before publishing data and therefore is subject to
change.
3: Number of registrars per district progressing from PGY3 to PGY4 and above for each of the last
five years
District &
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
PGY
Auckland
10
13
7
13
11
10
PGY3
7
7
5
10
7
10
PGY4
3
6
2
3
4
and above Waitematā
15
15
19
22
16
6
PGY3
13
10
17
18
13
5
PGY4
2
5
2
4
3
1
and above
‘Data on the distribution and equity of Senior Registrars across all districts over the past
five years.
This part of your request is refused under 18(g) of the Act, as the information does not exist.
Please note that equity is not a ‘measure/standard’ of our Senior Registrars.
For each of the last five years, please provide the average number of weeks of annual
leave actually taken by Medical Registrars, categorized by Junior and Senior Registrars,
and broken down by district.
As set out in the RMO collective agreements in the Cover for Leave provision an RMO shall
only be debited leave for leave days taken Monday through Friday, or if on a shift roster, no
more than five days in any week i.e. exclusive of rostered days off.
• Annual leave information has been provided by payroll and represents annual leave
hours paid in each calendar year specified.
• Medical Registrars have been identified by the Service and RC Code.
• Annual leave cannot be split by Junior / Senior as this information is not captured in the
Leader payroll system. The annual leave has been grouped up at Medical Registrar
level.
• Annual leave has been captured in hours in the payroll reporting. The average for each
year has been provided by dividing the total annual leave hours by the total number of
Medical Registrars.
• Two tables have been detailed providing the average for the last 5 years in annual
leave hours and annual leave days. RMOs are set up as salaried employees in the
Leader Payroll system and as such a day is the equivalent of 8 hours annual leave.
Days have therefore been calculated by dividing the total annual leave hours by 8.
• We have provided two tables; Table 1 details the average annual leave in hours and
Table 2 details the average annual leave in days (see notes above on how days are
calculated).
• Please note that this data is provisional and used for operational purposes. It has not
been through the full quality assurance process that we use before publishing data and
therefore is subject to change.
6: Average number of hours of leave taken by registrars per district in each of the last five years
Average
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
leave by
hours
Te Toka
Tumai
Auckland
Medical
106.2
96.9
87.9
98.8
92.9
Registrar
Average
(Hours) Waitematā
Medical
118.5
114.6
96.2
75.0
101.2
Registrar
Average
(Hours)
6: Average number of days of leave taken by registrars per district in each of the last five years
Average leave by days
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
Te Toka Tumai Auckland
Medical Registrar Average (Days)
13.3
12.1
11.0
12.3
11.6
Waitematā
Medical Registrar Average (Days)
14.8
14.3
12.0
9.4
12.6
For each of the last five years, please provide the following information regarding annual
leave for Medical Registrars, categorized by Junior and Senior Registrars, and broken
down by district:
a. The total number of annual leave requests submitted.
b. The total number of annual leave requests that were denied.
c. The total number of weeks of annual leave requested.
d. The total number of weeks of annual leave that were denied.
Notes:
• The calendar year has been identified by using the dates the annual leave was taken not
the date that the annual leave request was submitted noting these can be submitted
months in advance of the leave being taken. Where annual leave has crossed calendar
years, we have used the annual leave start date to determine which calendar year this will
be grouped in.
• The annual leave data has been taken from the electronic RMO leave kiosk. This will not
include any annual leave requests that were not submitted through the leave kiosk and
were sent directly to payroll for processing outside of the leave kiosk.
• The number of leave requests includes applications that may have been submitted and
then cancelled by a Medical Registrar, as well as additional requests where leave dates
have been amended. Each request submitted including the original request has been
counted in the data
• Please note that this data is provisional and used for operational purposes. It has not been
through the full quality assurance process that we use before publishing data and therefore
is subject to change.
a – The total number of annual leave requests submitted
Year
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
Te Toka Tumai Auckland
Annual leave requests submitted
744
740
887
661
823
Waitematā
Annual leave requests submitted
723
755
790
622
531
b – The total number of annual leave requests that were denied
Year
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
Te Toka Tumai Auckland
Annual leave requests denied
73
110
224
107
215
Waitematā
Annual leave requests denied
136
217
245
240
134
c – The total number of weeks of annual leave requested
Note: The information provided is the total number of days of annual leave requested
Year
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
Te Toka Tumai Auckland
Total number of days of annual leave
requested
3999.4
3610.0
4765.3
3967.7
4777.0
Waitematā
Total number of days of annual leave
requested
3685.9
3196.9
3610.3
3578.3
3158.1
d – The total number of weeks of annual leave that were denied
Note: The information provided is the total number of days of annual leave requested
Year
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
Te Toka Tumai Auckland
Total number of days of annual leave that
245.8
527.0
1226.8
909.0
1718.0
were denied
Waitematā
Total number of days of annual leave that
708.0
990.2
1206.0
1490.0
857.8
were denied
Additionally, if there is a shortage of registrars, I would like to understand how PGY1
positions are being managed to ensure that the pipeline allows for an appropriate number
of General Medicine Registrars by district. Specifically:
For each of the last five years, please provide the number of PGY1 (Postgraduate Year 1)
positions available versus the number of applicants in each district, to determine if PGY1
positions are oversubscribed in certain districts.
What specific measures have been taken or are planned to align the number of PGY1
positions with the future needs for General Medicine Registrars across all districts? Please
provide details of any workforce planning strategies or programs implemented in the past
five years.
How does the distribution of PGY1 positions across districts impact the availability and
recruitment of General Medicine Registrars in subsequent years? Please provide any
analyses or data that illustrate this impact over the past five years.
Please note that a response to these parts of your request were provided in our response to your
previous request, ref: HNZ00066740 dated 23 January 2025.
How to get in touch
If you have any questions, you can contact us at
[email address].
If you are not happy with this response, you have the right to make a complaint to the
Ombudsman. Information about how to do this is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or
by phoning 0800 802 602.
As this information may be of interest to other members of the public, Health NZ may proactively
release a copy of this response on our website. All requester data, including your name and
contact details, will be removed prior to release.
Nāku iti noa, nā
Fiona McCarthy
Interim Chief Human Resources Officer
People and Communications
TeWhatuOra.govt.nz
Health NZ, PO Box 793,
Wellington 6140, New Zealand
