In response, the backers of the proposed Waikato medical school made a stinging attack on the two existing schools, based at the University of Otago and University of Auckland.
The proposed school would do not remedy the ''decades of neglect'' of rural and high-needs areas, a media statement from Waikato University and Waikato District Health Board says.
The School of Rural Health, however, has the backing of leading sector bodies - the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners and the New Zealand Rural General Practice Network.
The medical schools and sector bodies announced the intention to investigate setting up the school in a combined statement yesterday.
Otago Medical School dean Prof Peter Crampton and Prof Warwick Bagg, of Auckland University, said New Zealand was training enough medical students, but too few entered rural general practice.
''Vibrant rural communities provide a rich learning environment for educating our health professionals and working in those communities during training will attract new graduates and returning health professionals to the rural sector,'' Prof Crampton said.
Prof Bagg said: ''We intend to work closely with these communities as they play a leading role in creating their future health workforce. We intend to work with them to solve their health service issues through a School of Rural Health.''
The school would involve up to 20 rural sites, with co-governance arrangements for local communities and iwi.
When contacted, Prof Crampton said the initiative had been in train before Waikato launched its medical school bid.
University of Waikato vice-chancellor Prof Neil Quigley said rural and high-needs communities had ''suffered decades of neglect from the two existing medical schools''.
''So the solution needs to be a fundamental change in the way that we select and prepare medical students for community service.
''Internationally, the countries that have successfully addressed these problems have done it by introducing a new medical education model rather than adjusting existing programmes. We owe it to New Zealand's communities to get this right.
''The Waikato graduate entry medical school proposal currently being considered by Government is the only proposal that offers the Government fundamental change in medical education that directly addresses the problems of health workforce distribution and overall health workforce shortages,'' Prof Quigley said.
If approved, the Waikato school aims to start taking students in 2020.
