2,000 Family Doctors Coming to New Zealand
The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners has won its bid to host the 2020 WONCA Asia Pacific Region
Conference, which would bring approximately 2,000 family doctors to New Zealand.
WONCA is the World Organisation of Family Doctors. The College’s bid was presented to the WONCA Asia Pacific Regional
Council on Tuesday 31 October [9.30pmNew Zealand time] by College President Dr Tim Malloy and Chief Executive Helen
Morgan-Banda, during the 2017 Asia Pacific Region Conference in Pattaya City, Thailand.
The 2020 conference would be held in Auckland on dates proposed from 28 July – 1 August. The theme would be Family Medicine: An advanced world of equity, quality and compassion.
As part of the bid presentation, Dr Malloy highlighted the College’s strategic commitment to equity and quality. He also
provided a general overview of New Zealand’s GP workforce and primary care system.
“We are delighted our bid was successful and are very excited to bring such a large delegation of family doctors to New
Zealand,” says Dr Malloy.
“This is a wonderful opportunity to highlight the achievements of our primary care sector to our international peers,”
he says. “And it also provides a valuable opportunity for New Zealand GPs to connect with a group they wouldn’t
typically have the opportunity to meet.
“In our bid we highlighted New Zealand’s multi-cultural GP workforce and the diverse population it cares for. We
emphasized our agility in terms of introducing new technologies and new models of care, and we explained our mix of
urban and rural communities.
“We also highlighted the things that make our College unique, including our philosophy of ‘by GPs for GPs’, our
collegiality, and our ‘general practice team’ approach.”
As well as offering delegates a uniquely Kiwi experience, the conference programme would cover global issues such as
mental health, multi-morbidity, technology, equity and quality health care.
The bid was prepared with support from Tourism New Zealand, and Tourism Auckland and would be held in the new New
Zealand International Convention Centre.
ENDS
About WONCA
The World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA) is a not-for-profit organization and was founded in 1972 by member
organisations in 18 countries. WONCA now has 118 Member Organizations in 131 countries and territories with membership
of about 500,000 family doctors and more than 90 per cent of the world’s population.
WONCA has seven regions across the globe, with the Asia Pacific region being one of the largest. This region’s member
organisations are from Australia, China (mainland), Fiji, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea (Republic of), Macau,
Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam. We are still missing seven
countries where no member organisations exist. (Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Laos, North Korea, Pacific Islands, Papua
New Guinea).