HOPES are high Tuesday night’s Budget will cure a chronic doctor shortage in Riverina’s towns and villages.
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Riverina MP Michael McCormack claimed rural medicine demanded a unique skill set and a Murray Darling Medical School at the Wagga CSU campus would deliver a shot in the arm to rural doctor retention rates.
It comes as Holbrook’s only doctor for 42 years can’t find a replacement after two years of extensive searching and offers to sponsor families and personally guarantee loans.
“If doctors are trained in the regions they have a far better strike rate of staying in the regions,” he said.
“Any specialist or GP in Wagga will tell you regional doctors have to be generalists and more versatile than they do in the city.”
CSU and La Trobe University have committed to 80 per cent of students from regional, rural, remote or Indigenous backgrounds.
Mr McCormack hoped a local medical school would ease dependence on foreign doctors.