In the latest episode of our Triple0 Talks podcast, we spoke to one of our doctors about his experience in coming to New Zealand to work and play. In September 2022 Ben Wakeling sent us an enquiry about coming to New Zealand from his home in Somerset, England. 6 months later he’s started as an Emergency Medicine Registrar in the famous Hawkes Bay wine region.
Listen to the full discussion below or read the transcript below, and if you’d like more advice on living and working in New Zealand, we have a number of resources available, including a guide to relocating to New Zealand, details on the key registration pathways available, a location guide to help you choose your destination and general information on moving to New Zealand as well as what it’s like to work here.
If you have any questions or would like to find out about the opportunities we have available across the country, get in touch with us.
Triple0 Talks is our podcast series that discusses important issues facing doctors today. Each episode highlights a specific theme and provides a real-world perspective from those who experience life as a doctor first-hand.
Transcript:
Speaker Richard
Hi, I’m Richard Spenceley, the C.E.O. of Triple0 Medical Recruitment, and I’m here today with our guest, Ben Wakeling. Ben, can you tell us a little bit about yourself please?
Speaker Ben
Yep, so my name’s Dr Wakeling. I am a graduate from the UK, I spent the first two years of my career working in my foundation program up in Edinburgh throughout Covid, and then decided to move a bit closer to home and did a FY3 / PGY3, depending on where you’re from, down back in Bath. I did a bit of locuming following that, and then it was a long-term aspiration to seek some new experiences, go abroad and move to New Zealand. And I haven’t looked back since then.
Speaker Richard
When did New Zealand first come on your radar? And why did it come on your radar as an option?
Speaker Ben
I did a graduate degree in medicine, so after my undergrad I did a bit of traveling afterwards and came to New Zealand and just had an amazing time. So, I think at that stage it was kind of, when you had such fond memories of a place, you always think “oh, what’s it like to actually live there?” So, when I graduated, I think the first instance of a possibility of moving out here to experience something different, a place that I’ve enjoyed, was always on the card. So just from that previous experience I was going to get out there at some point. It was just a matter of when and how at that stage.
Speaker Richard
What memories stand out to you from that OE visit over here?
Speaker Ben
Quite a few things, it was a whirlwind tour. We flew into Auckland and did the OE experience bus, which I think for many Brits is a rite of passage if you’re traveling in New Zealand. I think it was just the combination of the people I was with at the time, but more the fact that it’s like Scotland on steroids! Having spent two years in Scotland, trying to experience some of the wilderness, which was a bit hampered by the whole covid side of things, it was a dream to get back out there and experience all the different activities that I did at the time. Also, you go around in a whirlwind of three weeks being a minimum time period to see a lot of things, but you see all the scenery and you’re like “oh, it’d be great if we could do that hike”. You then do some searching and you find the great walks side of things. I think it was definitely a highlight, we’re just doing activities, but then also seeing the things that I missed out on and wanting to come back and do them.
Speaker Richard
Three weeks isn’t long enough to cover everything that New Zealand’s got. Did you do the infamous bungee jump down in Queenstown?
Speaker Ben
No, I didn’t. I’ve got that weird kind of mindset where I was happy to do the skydive in Queenstown, but for me Bungee was just never on the cards! I’m quite happy for someone to strap themselves to my back and just take me down out of a plane, but bungee jump though, not for me.
Speaker Richard
We will see if we can get you there before you go! We initially connected back in September of last year (2022) and that’s where the conversation started. You’re now here in your E.D. Registrar role; can you talk me through how you found the last six months, working through the processes involved to get you here?
Speaker Ben
I think at the start of the process it was just myself and my partner and we figured out that we wanted to take that step now, it was just a matter of trying to figure out how we did that. So, it was a matter of Googling and asking friends who they used, and we came across yourselves. The process was a bit long-winded, but I think given that you are essentially immigrating halfway across the world it’s understandable. I think at the time, without any kind of guidance, it can feel quite overwhelming. But with your team and the way you approached it, it was just broken-down step by step. You’re given a checklist of this is what you need to do, these are the people you need to contact, and this is the information you need to gather. So, actually when you’ve got your own life going on and different aspects that draw your attention and time, it was quite nice to have regular prompts of “this is what you need to do now” and “Can we have this done by this time?”. It didn’t feel like a chore at any point, or it could easily feel a bit more like “oh, I’m waiting on this person to do that” or “this person to get that certificate”. It’s just nice that we’ve got through it all and now we’re just having such a good experience in New Zealand. It just makes all that effort and time feel worth it.
Speaker Richard
Was there anything that stood out to you in that process in terms of how the interaction went with the hospital? For example, the kind of interview questions that were asked.
Speaker Ben
I didn’t actually have an interview with the hospital which was an interesting. We had interviews for everything back home and then I had an interview with your team. I think that was just to put a face to the enquiry I had sent. I’m in Hawkes Bay, I’d not heard of it before I looked for jobs. I think about 70% of the medical workforce here is from the UK and they do struggle to recruit because it’s just a bit more out the way. I think it was more a matter of, if you’ve got a certain degree of experience, are of a certain character, which I think your team has more of a screening process for, they’re just happy to get anyone that could, and would want, to come. When you’ve not heard of the area or the hospital before, it’s a bit daunting to be like “oh, let’s just go out on a whim and take a chance” but actually it’s a beautiful place and we’ve not regretted it at all.
Speaker Richard
That’s quite brave though, isn’t it? It’s brave of you to take that leap of faith, to go to an area that you don’t know much about as doesn’t sound like it was on your three-week visit, yet you’ve still done it. Where did you find the motivation or inspiration to take that leap?
Speaker Ben
I think we were just quite keen to get out (of the UK) into New Zealand. A combination of what’s going on back at home both with the healthcare system and politically, it was just a matter of it felt to a degree, like we were trying to just escape that kind of chaotic storm. At the same time, we felt that we liked the culture and the attitude that New Zealand people have. It also helps that they’re rugby obsessed, everyone speaks the same language and there’s a bakery on every corner! So, for us it was a matter that the community you go to can’t be any worse than what we’ve experienced back in the UK. We just take the attitude that “if we just experience it and see what it’s like” then if we don’t like it there’s always the option to seek other options in the country as well. Bravery never really crossed our mind, it was more just a matter of you don’t know what you’ve got until you try it out, and if it doesn’t work out that’s not the end of the world.
Speaker Richard
Talk to me about the experience in the hospital. What similarities are there to working back in the UK and then what differences have you found?
Speaker Ben
Similarities, there are quite a few I guess. This is a bit more of an isolated experience because it is very much a rural hospital. I think our major tertiary centre will be Wellington or Auckland and they’re a couple of hours away via helicopter or an hour via plane. Similarities, its a similar setup, you’ve got a lot of UK Consultants in every kind of specialty so the way you approach things is very similar. Treatment plans are very similar because it’s all based on universal evidence-based medicine. There’s that normal hierarchy but actually from my experience in the Emergency Department, it’s a very similar attitude to what I’ve experienced back home where everyone just pitches in. ED seems to attract people that are very outgoing. It obviously has the odd character, but everyone’s very friendly and everyone just pitches in to make sure that we do the best for whoever we experience. Obviously, you have the challenging public side of things, you always have the characters that come in that are regular attenders. I guess the main differences I’ve experienced so far in not working in the NHS is everything seems to be funded. As we mentioned in the process of moving or immigrating here, everything was funded except for the flights. So, at the time it seems quite an expensive process to do Visas, police checks, the New Zealand medical certificates and the application. I didn’t actually realise at the time that when I arrived, I could actually apply for the funding to get all that money back if I wanted. And then you talk about other aspects of it all and the way the healthcare system works, again a big difference here is they pay for lunches. I think I pay at most $4 a day for parking, which is about £2. You get all your exams paid for; you get your training paid for, your license for each year is paid for, so you don’t actually have to fork out financially just to do your job. They go out of their way to make sure you upskill as well. It always feels like a bit of an ask, but if you see a program that you want to do or a training course, like in Australia, or I’ve even heard of a friend of a friend who went back to the UK to do a course. They’ll pay for you to do it. They’ll pay for your transport costs, and they’ll pay for your accommodation because I think they value the experience that we have, and the service that we can offer, if they can retain everyone here. The big difference seem to be…..the main word I would use is value. You just feel a lot more valued and a lot more supported in that sense.
Speaker Richard
Probably two words you don’t often here within public health systems; feeling valued and supported, I am pleased to hear that. Talk to us about life outside of the hospital, how are you enjoying New Zealand when you do get some free time?
Speaker Ben
Emergency medicine is a bit universal, where the hours aren’t ideal. There’s a lot of antisocial aspects to it, but I think when you do get time off, then you make the most of it. Actually, my start date was delayed by a month, just to help give us some time to settle in. So outside of the hospital it’s been quite nice to do some exploring. I think we had quite a jam packed two weeks of seeing the North Island and we did some white-water rafting, mountain biking, hiking and surfing; we’ve done everything! I think at this stage we’re just looking at different clubs to join and trying to do some more social things with our colleagues at work. Just trying to build a bit of community because I think that kind of creates a bit more of an attachment to an area. You feel more settled and more at home when you’ve got people to experience things with and do things with.
Speaker Richard
And you’ve still got the ski season to look forward to!
Speaker Ben
Yeah, I’ve heard about this. I think it sounds like I have to go to the South Island a bit more for that. In the meantime, we’ve got the beach 10 minutes’ drive away, it’s been good. Even last night I was out on a social with our department, we have these things called journal clubs. Normally at home, they always seemed to be quite formal, purely academic side of things. Whereas the way they approached it here was they hired the room above a bar, which was a five minute walk from work. It was classified as work time, so people who were on shift at the time got to leave a bit early to go to it. From the start everyone had a beer in hand and talked through some papers, then afterwards we went into the town and had a couple more drinks and I think the cocktails then came out! For the recruitment side of things you should take photos of everyone who were supposed to still be on the shop floor, but we’re actually in a bar with a beer in hand and reading through some journals on a casual basis, I think that would be quite good to get more people to come over!
Speaker Richard
Well dare I say you guys thoroughly deserve it as well. I think I probably know the answer to this, but reflecting back, if you could have your time again, would you still come to New Zealand to work or do something else?
Speaker Ben
No, I absolutely would. I’ve no regrets whatsoever making this move. I’m just so glad that its actually turned out to be exactly what I wanted it to be, more if anything. If I had my time again, I would probably apply for a job straight after I finished my commitments and foundation back at home, so that would’ve been a year and a half before now. No regrets whatsoever, if anything, I think the initial approach was we were going to stay for a year, we’re on the one to two year working holiday visa but within a week of being here they (immigration NZ) sent us an email saying you can extend that to three years if you want. I haven’t come across anyone from the UK that I’m working with at the moment, who had an eye for staying here for one year have said they’re going back. At the year mark, they’re all saying, we’re going to extend and stay here for a year and a half to two years more. There’s a number of people saying they’re going to train here now. So, no regrets whatsoever.
Speaker Richard
New Zealand does that to you, I think I came here for two years and I’m 17 years in now and I’m still loving it. Ben, thanks for sharing your insights and your experience, I hope it inspires others to step out of their comfort zone and follow your lead, we really appreciate it.
