Initial funding of about $1 million will flow to a Mid-North Coast training hub as part of a program to build the rural and regional health workforce.
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The aim is to give young doctors a seamless training experience to encourage them to study, work and live in the regions.
The University of NSW has signed on to the project and will operate the Mid-North Coast Regional Training Hub.
The Mid-North Coast hub is one of 26 throughout the country under the federal government’s Rural Health Multidisciplinary Training program.
Assistant Minister for Health and Lyne MP Dr David Gillespie said the Mid-North Coast hub, primarily based out of Kempsey, would work with healthcare providers, specialist colleges and local health authorities to develop training pathways for our future doctors along the Mid-North Coast.
He said UNSW would focus on providing a career pathway for junior doctors wishing to train as rural generalists and deliver the specialised procedural skills training that was critical to Australia’s rural workforce.
“We are trying to shift the postgraduate training paradigm so that more opportunities for upskilling and certification are in place in regional Australia,” Dr Gillespie said.
The University of NSW has a track record of undergraduate medical training in Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour.
Cowper MP Luke Hartsuyker said there had been a gap in the system where students from rural clinical schools would return to metropolitan areas for postgraduate training.
“To be able to allow them to train in the Macleay Valley will mean we have a high chance of potentially retaining those doctors once they have finished their training,” he said.
UNSW Associate Dean (Rural Health) Dr Lesley Forster said the new program would provide the missing part of the puzzle.
“For us, it’s a really exciting step forward and it’s the step forward rather than losing them to the city hospitals,” Dr Forster said.
The plan is for the Mid-North Coast hub to take an integrated approach with postgraduate GP training at Kempsey and specialist training at Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour.