Burned-Out Doctors Are Leaving the U.S. for a Remote Town in New Zealand

Four years ago, Dr. Brandon Williams, an internal-medicine doctor at a hospital in La Jolla, Calif., reached a breaking point. An increase in patients, not enough medical staff, the threat of malpractice lawsuits, and distress about patients’ inability to pay for healthcare got so bad that he developed post-traumatic stress disorder. One of his colleagues died by suicide.

He didn’t want to stop practicing medicine—but he wanted to stop practicing medicine in the United States. He and his wife, Ellen Williams, 38, started looking in Europe for a better option. Then he got a letter from a medical recruiter in New Zealand. 

“As crazy as it sounded to go all the way to the middle of nowhere, the more I thought about it, the more it made sense,” said Brandon, 39, a California native.

The family sold their house and moved in November 2024 to the coastal town of Timaru on New Zealand’s South Island, which has become a hub for American doctors relocating to the country. “I’d never thought of leaving the U.S.,” said Brandon. “I’d never even thought of leaving California.”