A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE

Every year, National Party deputy leader and MP for Whangārei Dr Shane Reti gets “back on the tools”. By which he means he goes to Northland, where he worked for years as a GP, and spends time seeing patients. This October, he was back on the tools for a very specific mission: to administer vaccines in rural Northland with Ki A Ora Ngātiwai, a Māori health provider.

Reti (Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Wai) has travelled great distances over the course of his life and career. Born in Hamilton to parents who left school after fourth form, he spent a year in rural Idaho on a Rotary exchange. After graduating from the University of Auckland Medical School, he worked for years in a practice in Whangārei. In 2007, he was awarded a Harkness Fellowship to Harvard Medical