Voluntary Bonding Scheme

Am I eligible?

The Voluntary Bonding Scheme is limited each year to 100 medical graduates and 250 nursing or midwifery graduates (350 in total) working in hard-to-staff areas. These numbers are subject to registrations of interest.

Graduates must stay on the scheme for three years to receive payments and cannot stay on the scheme for longer than five years.

In 2009, the scheme is being offered to doctors, nurses and midwives. Voluntary bonding may be considered for other specialties and communities in the years to come.

There are limited places available. To be eligible for one of those places, an applicant must be:

a graduate from a New Zealand accredited tertiary institute and
willing to work in a hard-to-staff area for three to five years.

These are defined below:

View also information on how the definitions and eligibility criteria for the scheme will be reviewed.

Definition of graduate

The Voluntary Bonding Scheme is primarily designed for health professionals who are in their first year of postgraduation training. However, as part of a transition phase for 2009, a graduate is defined as any doctor, nurse or midwife who has graduated from an accredited training institute in New Zealand (listed on the What you need to know page) since 2005 and falls into one of the following categories.

Note: Doctors, nurses and midwives who graduated in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 must join the scheme in 2009 to be eligible for payments. In 2010, the scheme will only be open to 2009 graduates. For the purposes of the scheme, graduate year refers to your final year of study.

Medical graduate eligibility criteria:

2007 and 2008 graduates who will work in one of the hard-to-staff communities for doctors for the next two years then be accepted on, and be completing, a vocational training programme for one of the hard-to-staff specialties for doctors for a further one to three years.
2005, 2006 and 2007 graduates who have entered into a vocational training programme for one of the hard-to-staff specialties for doctors and will work in one of the hard-to-staff communities for doctors for the next three to five years.

Registrations from 2005, 2006 and 2007 graduates who have entered into a vocational training programme for one of the hard-to-staff specialties for doctors in other locations will be reviewed on a case by case basis if there are places available on the scheme.

Doctors must satisfy both the hard-to-staff community and hard-to-staff specialty criteria at the end of the initial three year bonding period.

Midwifery graduate eligibility criteria:

2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 graduates who will work in one of the hard-to-staff communities for midwives for the next three to five years. Both DHB-employed and Lead Maternity Carer (LMC) midwives are eligible for the scheme.

Nursing graduate eligibility criteria:

2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 graduates who will work in one of the hard-to-staff specialties for nurses (in any location) for the next three to five years.

Definition of hard-to-staff areas

After discussions with key sector representatives, the Ministry of Health has defined the following hard-to-staff communities and specialties for medicine, midwifery and nursing.

Medicine

The hard-to-staff communities for doctors are:

Northland DHB
Lakes DHB
Tairawhiti DHB
Whanganui DHB
Wairarapa DHB
West Coast DHB
Southland DHB
Wairau Hospital
Whakatane Hospital
Thames Hospital.

The hard-to-staff specialties for doctors (in any community) are:

general practitioner
general surgeon
internal medicine physician
psychiatry
pathology
rural hospital medicine.

Doctors must satisfy both the hard-to-staff community and hard-to-staff specialty criteria at the end of the initial three year bonding period.

Midwifery

The hard-to-staff communities for midwives are:

Northland DHB
Dargaville
Counties Manukau DHB
Tairawhiti DHB
Taupo
Whanganui DHB
Wairarapa DHB
Capital and Coast DHB
Southland DHB
West Coast DHB

Nursing

The hard-to-staff specialties for nurses are:

theatre
intensive care (ICU) or
cardiothoracic.

The rules of the scheme are set out on the What you need to know page.

Reviewing the scheme

The scheme definitions and eligibility criteria will be reviewed. Applicants already selected for the scheme will not be impacted by any changes to the definition and eligibility criteria.

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Page last updated: 17 April 2009