RANZCO CEO Mark Carmichael, RANZCO NZ chair Dr Liz Insull, minister of health Simeon Brown and ONZ’s Dr Sonya Bennett

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists (RANZCO) and Ophthalmology New Zealand (ONZ) recently met New Zealand’s new minister of health, Simeon Brown, at Parliament to discuss the ophthalmology workforce and strategies for optimising eye health in Aotearoa.

Initiated by the College, RANZCO NZ branch chair Dr Liz Insull said it was a positive meeting and the minister, being new to the health portfolio, was open to learning more about eye health.

RANZCO sought to update Minister Brown on the eye health landscape in New Zealand, particularly with regard to workforce issues, including falling ophthalmologist ratios and the ineffective distribution of the ophthalmologist workforce, which are highlighted in the 2024 paper by Hong et al, 'Update and projections for New Zealand’s ophthalmology workforce', she said.

“One of the goals of Te Kitenga Vision 2030 is to increase the number of ophthalmologists per capita. We discussed this with the minister, emphasising the need for more supervised operating lists and clinics to support training, fully funding existing training posts, expanding the number of training positions overall, retaining New Zealand-trained ophthalmologists, and supporting our specialist international medical graduates so they can progress to become trainers themselves.”

RANZCO also reinforced its support for elimination of the postcode lottery with a national CPAC score for cataract surgery, she said. “This is also one of our Te Kitenga goals and the initiative came into fruition with our previous government. We reiterated support for Health New Zealand’s Eye Health National Clinical Network, a collaboration that is already having a positive impact on eye health care in Aotearoa.”

Next steps include continuous discussions with senior leadership within Health New Zealand, said Dr Insull. “It was a positive step meeting with the minister, alerting him to the issues affecting eye health in our country today and providing strategies and ideas that could mitigate these, making a long lasting and positive impact. Realistically, it is a long road ahead, but this was certainly a step in the right direction.”

Having attended a second eye health meeting with the presiding minister of health in just over six months, ONZ deputy chair Dr Sonya Bennett said, “We’re trying to get the attention of the Government to help us address the three crucial issues facing ophthalmology in New Zealand: retention of recently graduated ophthalmologists within New Zealand, increasing the numbers of trainees, plus cataract surgery efficiency. The country’s ophthalmologists are committed to finding innovative ways to help our people, despite the difficult economic environment and we are hopeful the Government will back us by providing the framework and support for this to occur.”