One Small Region Of NZ Has A Rather Exotic GP Who Has Taken Up A Long Vacant Role In Waimarino, Ruapehu

One small region of NZ has a rather exotic GP who has taken up a long vacant role in Waimarino, Ruapehu. “JP” Schwartz hails from Texas and after spending the majority of his career in his home state at Fort Worth and near the Mexican border – things changed when he met his English wife, Emma Hughes. They lived in the UK before Schwartz returned to the US to undertake locum work. Then Covid struck and the couple were separated. When a job in NZ came up they grabbed the opportunity and it seems may have inadvertently triggered a wave of Texan doctors making their way to New Zealand. JP says medical professionals in Texas have become burned out over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, in a state that is “very un-doctor friendly”. He will be at Ruapehu Health, part of the Whanganui Regional Health Network, for at least a year.