Royal New Zealand College of Urgent Care

Rau rangatira mā, e kui mā, e koro mā, e huihui nei, tēnei aku mihi māhana ki a koutou. Nau mai, haere mai ra ki Te Whare Kawana o Tamaki Makaurau.

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, warm greetings to you all, and welcome to Government House Auckland.

I specifically acknowledge: David Gollogly (Chair of Royal New Zealand College of Urgent Care), Andrew Connolly (Medical Council Chair), Anthony Hill (Health and Disability Commissioner), Alistair Sullivan (Royal New Zealand College of Urgent Care Secretary) and Brenda Evitt (Royal New Zealand College of Urgent Care CEO).

Tēnā koutou katoa.

It is a great pleasure for Janine and me to welcome you all to Government House Auckland.
First let me congratulate the College for achieving ‘Royal’ status.  This is quite a milestone and I can imagine a lot of work has gone into achieving it.

I understand that this country has been a pioneer in the development of urgent care medicine as a specialist discipline – and as a provider of specialist training.

It must be very satisfying to be recognised as a leader in these fields.

New Zealanders are very fortunate to live in a country where medical facilities are evolving to reflect our changing needs.

Whether they are a mother of a child with a raging temperature, an intrepid traveller with a tick buried under their skin, do-it-yourselfers who have sliced their fingers, or rugby players nursing suspected fractures –New Zealanders all appreciate having medical facilities which take in all-comers and are open after hours.

No doubt these aspects of urgent care also appeal to certain medical professionals.

There can be few equivalent opportunities for physicians to apply their full range of medical knowledge and skills – or work-places that offer the flexibility of urgent care medicine. 

The development of urgent care specialisation would certainly have been of great interest to one of my predecessors, the first New Zealand-born Governor General, Sir Arthur Porritt, who had a distinguished medical career before he took up this role.

As an army surgeon in the Second World War he would have been well acquainted with the challenges of urgent care.  In the post-war years, he became well known as a trail-blazer of new surgical techniques.

Even though Porritt lived most of his life in the United Kingdom, he always thought of himself as a New Zealander.

During his time as Governor-General, he took great interest in medical developments here. I am sure he would have been delighted to see this as the first country to recognise urgent care as a branch of medicine and proud to see you exporting your expertise to countries with comparable health care systems.

He certainly brings to mind the whakatauākī, Whāia te iti kahurangi, Ki te tūohu koe, me he maunga teitei, which exhorts us to pursue excellence, and if we should stumble, to let it be on a lofty mountain.

The Royal New Zealand College of Urgent Care is clearly recognised as a centre of excellence. I imagine the challenges now will be to keep developing expertise amongst practitioners, to keep up with the research and development, and to maintain your pre-eminent position.

Challenges I am sure you will all embrace with enthusiasm.

Congratulations for your achievements, and all the best with your future work.

Kia ora huihui tātou katoa and please enjoy the hospitality of Government House this evening.