The Voluntary Bonding Scheme 2025 intake information

The four-week registration period for the 2025 Intake of the Scheme has closed (Sunday 21st December 2025, 5pm). No further registrations can be considered for this intake.

If you completed a registration, you ought to have received a portal message and can check the status of your registration and any messages by logging into the registrant portal. An outcome letter will be available for you to view and download.

If you have not received the email, (or can’t access the letter) check your junk, spam and unread email folders. If it’s not there, please email us.

If your registration has been approved, and you have received your approval outcome letter, you have been accepted to the Scheme. Congratulations!

If so, for now, all you need to do is:

• abide by the 2025 Terms and Conditions for your profession
• if your name or contact details have changed, update your contact details through your MyHealth or MyHealth Workforce account
• advise us via a portal message or email if your career plans have changed and you no longer wish to continue in the Scheme, or if you’re taking parental leave, or other extended leave, or have any queries about your participation or the Scheme itself.

Health NZ received 405 registrations from eligible registrants across the Scheme’s professions, and all registrants have been accepted.

The accepted registrants reflect the Government’s key workforce priority areas: primary care and public sector allied health. The intake includes:

• 137 Midwives working across Aotearoa New Zealand
• 107 Registered Nurses and 22 Nurse Practitioners working across a range of primary care settings nationwide
• 50 rural and regional General Practice Trainees
• 32 Dentists and 17 Oral Health Therapists working for Māori or Pacific oral health providers or regional, rural and remote practices
• 10 Pharmacists working Pharmacies and Primary Care Practices in Rural and Regional Community settings (excluding the 6 main centres)
• 18 Radiation Therapists, 7 Anaesthetic Technicians and 5 Sonographers working in the Aotearoa New Zealand public sector

A report detailing the anonymised professional, geographic and demographic distribution of accepted 2025 Intake registrants is available for download.

2025 Voluntary Bonding Scheme (VBS) Summary Sheet [PDF, 142 KB]

Health NZ was pleased to announce the eligible professions, specialties/settings, and communities for the 2025 intake of the Scheme with a primary/community healthcare and public allied health focus.

It builds on the governments primary care investment announced in March 2025 to improve access to primary care and boost the primary and community health care workforce.

The 2025 intake was open to:

• newly qualified (2024) Nurse Practitioners in primary and community healthcare and aged care settings nationwide
• new graduate (2024) Registered Nurses in primary and community healthcare and aged care settings nationwide
• new or recent (2022-2024) graduate Pharmacists in Pharmacies and Primary Care Practices in Rural and Regional Community settings
• rural and regional General Practice trainees, in targeted communities
• new graduate (2024) midwives nationwide
• new graduate (2024) Anaesthetic Technicians, Radiation Therapists, Medical Physicists, and Sonographers working for Health NZ
• new and recent graduate (2022-2024) Dentists and Oral Health Therapists in rural and regional community practice or for Mâori and Pacific services

The full list of eligible professions, specialties and communities can be found 2025 below.