Working Here
Find out what several of our current Senior Medical Officers have to say about working at Timaru Hospital and residing in South Canterbury – check out the video clip on our microsite: www.medicalstaff.co.nz
or request a copy of our latest informational DVD: hradmin@scdhb.health.nz .
South Canterbury District Health Board (DHB) is the fourth smallest in New Zealand and comprises Timaru Hospital and Talbot Park, an aged care residential facility. Being smaller doesn't mean we are any less capable, in fact SCDHB is generally ranked as a top performing DHB when measured against the Ministry of Health benchmarks and even the Ministers Office has acknowledged the fact that SCDHB consistantly performs well.
Though not a formal teaching hospital we do retain the capacity to train and develop RMO's (junior doctors), and are developing specific links with Otago Medical School for the placement of trainee interns for block periods at Timaru Hospital. We also enjoy an informal arrangement with both Canterbury and Otago DHBs (tertiary centres) to ensure academic opportunities remain available to those seeking them.
Timaru Hospital with 133 beds is small by many standards. Many put our friendly and informal (though no less professional) atmosphere down to this small size. By necessity medical staff tend be more generalists, perhaps with sub-specialty interests. We have consistently provided higher levels of service than required under our contracts, and our community’s access to non-acute medical procedures is the envy of many.
Talbot Park is a 78 bed hospital level long-stay aged residential care facility. Its nearly $1 million dementia care unit was opened in 2005, bringing to 29 its total of D-6 dementia beds. D-6 is the highest level of dementia care available and Talbot Park is the only facility in South Canterbury to provide that level of care.
Here you will find a strong emphasis on capital replacement, and significant attention is placed on the engagement of clinicians within the senior management team, with three clinical directors and a medical advisor forming an important part of that team.
In many instances our clinicians have opportunities to combine both public and private practice.
With no registrars, junior doctors are able to gain invaluable experience working far more closely with senior doctors than they would elsewhere. Not surprisingly, clinicians here enjoy and place emphasis upon a closeness to patients and practice — a hands-on experience many in the medical profession are coming to miss.
Outside of working hours you’ll find Timaru and surrounding districts offer an amazing array of outdoor pursuits for which New Zealand is famed – skiing (snow and water); trout and salmon fishing, tramping, boating and much more. A long established and relatively prosperous rural centre, Timaru offers much comparable to any larger centre, yet without many of the associated hassles, (like higher crime rates and traffic congestion for example).
The expression that "Timaru is a well kept secret" in terms of the real balance of lifestyle and career that is achievable here is a common theme often expressed by new arrivals to SCDHB.