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‘A good news story’: RACGP welcomes rural training boost
Regional and rural areas are set to benefit from a $90 million injection for the setup of six new medical school programs.
Creation of the new medical schools will have ‘flow-on effects’ to the local communities where they are being built, says the RACGP’s Vice President and Rural Chair.
Ongoing workforce shortage woes plaguing regional and rural areas are expected to see some relief with a recent announcement of a $90 million Federal Government investment to establish new regional medical school programs.
The RACGP has hailed the funding, which aligns with key advocacy efforts to address workforce maldistribution, better support medical students, and strengthen the future of general practice.
‘This is a good news story,’ Associate Professor Michael Clements, RACGP Vice President and Rural Chair, told newsGP.
‘It’s been in planning for some time now, so is very welcome.
‘We know the evidence is clear that if we train our medical students in rural communities and regional communities that they’re much more likely to stay.’
Commencing in 2024, the project will fund medical classrooms, equipment and facilities, and up to 80 new medical Commonwealth supported places matched by universities that must redirect an equivalent number of existing placements to the new rural programs – with these supported places announced earlier this year.
The universities with existing medical schools were selected for grants to receive capital, establishment and recurrent costs to support the new programs.
‘This is putting the universities that are accepting this funding on notice about the requirement to deliver these rural outcomes so they are selecting the right students and training them in the right environment so they can deliver the workforce where they most need,’ Associate Professor Clements said.
In addition to boosting the medical workforce, the investment will bring much-needed economic and social benefits for the selected communities, the college’s Rural Chair highlights.
‘What this does is give a really good opportunity for those new placements in those new locations to recruit locally as well – we know this is going to have flow-on effects to those local communities where these are being built,’ he said.
‘For example, the infrastructure and staff required to support those placements means more employment and thriving in those areas.
‘We also know that high school and primary school students in those areas will see that medical school is attainable and achievable and they’re more likely to do it.’
The six medical school programs will bring 160 medical students each for end-to-end training, comprising:
- 30 in Ararat and Warrnambool, Victoria – Deakin University
- 20 in Broome, Western Australia – University of Notre Dame
- 20 in Rockhampton, Queensland – University of Queensland
- 30 in Nowra, New South Wales – University of Wollongong
- 20 in regional Tasmania – University of Tasmania
- 40 in regional South Australia – Flinders University.
The Northern Territory is also set to benefit, with an additional
$2.8 million announced this week to fund preliminary exploratory work on the establishment of a new medical school, aiming to help repair
‘critical’ GP shortages in the Territory and maintain a local workforce.
‘It’s nice to see the list has a range of good locations … it’s quite diverse coverage,’ Associate Professor Clements said.
‘The ones that are selected are certainly important and needful areas and certainly welcome.’
While medical students who train in regional and rural Australia are
more likely to stay and practice in those areas after they graduate, workforce shortages due to growing concerns of
fewer medical students choosing general practice as a career coupled with
more rural clinics closing have added weight to the
RACGP’s calls for greater investment to cement workforce recruitment and retention.
Associate Professor Clements said this week’s announcement is a significant step.
‘This is certainly based on good evidence and based on good advocacy through all of the different organisations,’ he said.
‘[As well as the RACGP,] everybody from RDAA and ACRRM and AMA are very much in support of this.’
The funding injection builds on the
Working Better for Medicare Review – welcomed
by the RACGP last month – which promotes the medical workforce to live and work in areas of most need, as well as the
Unleashing the Potential of Our Health Workforce – Scope of Practice Review, which aims to ensure medical professionals can apply best practice to their skills and experience, and was a key recommendation of the
Strengthening Medicare Taskforce Report.
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