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DAVID UNWIN/Stuff
Palmerston North MP Tangi Utikere, Health Minister Ayesha Verrall and Gibbons Holdings managing director Scott Gibbons cut the ribbon at the opening of Te Whaioranga, UCOL Te PÅ«kenga’s new healthcare education centre.
The opening of a new health sciences education centre in Palmerston North is expected to improve the region’s capacity to build its own health workforce.
Health Minister Ayesha Verrall accompanied city MP Tangi Utikere at Friday’s opening of the $10 million Te Whaioranga, the UCOL Te Pūkenga health education building on Queen St.
The former PSA building has been partially demolished, earthquake strengthened and transformed into a modern, practical tertiary school for nursing, medical imaging and social service students.
The 2000-square-metre facility will be the home base for 37 staff and 600 students, with capacity to boost student numbers to 900 a year over time.
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Verrall said developing the health workforce to support services that were under pressure was a key priority.
The goal was to create a workforce that could meet people’s health needs early and in the community before they became very unwell and ended up in hospital.
She said being able to train people in the communities where they lived, and for them to be able to move into work caring for that community, was preferable to trying to recruit health workers from overseas.
DAVID UNWIN/Stuff
Health Minister Ayesha Verrall welcomes improved facilities for training work-ready health students.
Verrall said careers in health in New Zealand were becoming more attractive, with some nurses paid as much as they could earn in many parts of Australia.
Former UCOL chief executive Linda Sissons, recently appointed as chief advisor/portfolio strategy for Te Pūkenga, said the institution had struggled to provide quality health education programmes in inadequate facilities.
She said the project was initially turned down for the Government’s shovel-ready funding, but the arrangement with Gibbons in 2022 to buy, develop and lease back the building had made it possible.
Gibbons is a Nelson-based family-owned property investment company.
Its managing director Scott Gibbons said it was the company’s first partnership with the public sector, and its first in Manawatū.
The new building had purpose-built laboratories to simulate a hospital setting and technology, break-out rooms for study, a home environment for practising care for people in the community, and places for inter-disciplinary teaching and learning.
SUPPLIED
UCOL Te PÅ«kenga students at Te Whaioranga, Macaulay (Mac) Diment and Holly McMullan show developer Scott Gibbons, Palmerston North MP Tangi Utikere and Health Minister Ayesha Verrall around their new learning facilities.
UCOL was one of only three New Zealand providers that offered a medical imaging degree, and was the fourth largest in terms of nursing students.
Utikere said the development was important for the city’s economy, both during construction and, more importantly, in its role in strengthening an already significant health and education sector.
Health, education and social services made up the city’s largest industry and employers.
It was essential current and future students had the training and facilities they needed so they could graduate ready for work with employers eager to take on competent, skilled staff.
The name Te Whaioranga was a gift from Rangitāne, which translated as pursuing health and wellness.
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