The federal government is supporting the University of Sydney’s “vision” for its School of Rural Health in Dubbo and Orange to offer specialist training to doctors.
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Federal Assistant Minister for Health Dr David Gillespie announced 26 training hubs across Australia during a visit to Dubbo on Thursday.
The School of Rural Health at Dubbo and Orange will form part of the hub network that seeks to fill workforce shortages in regional, rural and remote communities.
Dean of Sydney Medical School, Professor Arthur Conigrave, joined Dr Gillespie and federal Member for Parkes Mark Coulton for the announcement. Professor Conigrave said the hub at the School of Rural Health at Dubbo and Orange would “add value to the work that’s already being done here”. “The vision is ..medical students become graduates and actually undertake their specialist training here in Dubbo and also Orange,” he said.
Dr Gillespie said graduates faced at least six or seven years of training to become the likes of specialist GPs, rural generalists or surgeons.
Mr Coulton said “up until now” specialist training could only be undertaken in a capital city. “We lose some of our people to the cities because they become established in the cities,” he said.
The University of Sydney reports that the hub at Dubbo and Orange will be a “joint effort” between it and other organisations including the Western NSW Local Health District and specialist colleges.
Currently, one-third of its medical students undertake an extended rural placement. There is a total of 64 students at the School of Rural Health at Dubbo and Orange
The university of Sydney claims students who complete extended rural placements are more likely to seek a career in the country than students who have not had such a placement, or students who have “a rural origin”.
Professor Conigrave said the most important factor in ensuring that rural medical workforce needs were met and sustained was the availability of a comprehensive and adequately-supported rural training “pipeline”. “This must enable students interested in a rural career not only to obtain intern and residency posts, but also to progress through postgraduate specialty training, including rural generalist training, in appropriate rural and regional centres.”
The federal government is spending $54.4 million on the hubs and three new University Departments of Rural Health (UDRH) , one of them at Charles Sturt University (CSU). Vice chancellor Professor Andrew Vann said it would “generate and support” placements in a range of health settings in inland NSW for CSU’s undergraduate allied health students.
