Consultant Anaesthetist — Gisborne, Tairāwhiti

About the role

Gisborne is geographically isolated, and that shapes the job more than anything on the position description. There is no tertiary centre within reach, so the anaesthetic department carries a breadth of practice that a larger hospital would distribute across several subspecialties, and preparing critically ill patients for transfer is a routine part of the week rather than an occasional event.

You would work alongside the Head of Department and colleagues across a generalist caseload, contribute to the on-call roster covering theatres, maternity, critical care and the emergency department, and teach the junior doctors and other disciplines who rely on the department.

Paediatric anaesthesia experience is an advantage, as is recent critical care or resuscitation experience. Fellowship of ANZCA is preferred for applicants already in New Zealand or Australia but is not essential for overseas candidates — the route for an internationally trained anaesthetist is provisional vocational registration with the Medical Council, and we will tell you what yours looks like before you apply.

What the role involves

• Pre-operative anaesthesia clinic
• Anaesthesia for elective and emergency surgery across a generalist caseload
• Peri-operative management on ICU and HDU and on the wards
• Preparing and stabilising critically ill patients for transfer to a tertiary centre
• Pain management advice across the hospital
• On-call cover for theatres, maternity, critical care and the emergency department
• Teaching junior doctors and colleagues in other disciplines

About you

• Vocational registration with the Medical Council of New Zealand in the Anaesthesia scope of practice, or eligibility for provisional vocational registration if you trained overseas
• FANZCA is preferred for applicants in New Zealand or Australia; it is not essential for overseas candidates
• Comfortable with generalist practice and with being the senior decision-maker rather than escalating
• Paediatric anaesthesia experience is an advantage, as is recent critical care or resuscitation experience
• Source verification of your qualifications will be required

About Gisborne and Tairāwhiti

Gisborne is the first city in the world to see the sun each day, and one of the most isolated in New Zealand — four hours to Napier, six to Auckland, and no motorway in any direction. What that isolation buys is a coastline most of the country only visits: Wainui and Makorori beaches are minutes from the hospital, the Waipaoa valley grows a good deal of the country’s chardonnay, and housing costs a fraction of what it does in the main centres. It is a small, strongly Māori community — around half of Tairāwhiti’s population — and a place where clinicians tend to arrive for two years and stay for ten. It is not for everyone.