Pressure is mounting on government auditors to support a Wagga medical school over the objections of “city elites”.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The federal health department is in the throes of a stock-take of the number and location of medical students and will recommend changes after April.
It is estimated the school would contribute $22.52 million to the local economy by the time it’s up and running, an additional $13.3 million in local household income and 165 new full-time jobs.
Wagga radiologist and chairman of the Rural Medical School Implementation Committee Nick Stephenson recognised concerns about too many medical graduates in Australia without enough post-graduate opportunities, but said the obvious answer was to scale back metropolitan universities.
“I'm not in any way critical of our rural clinical schools (University of Notre Dame and University of New South Wales), but it’s not the same as a medical school based west of the great dividing range” Dr Stephenson said.
“Established medical schools like University of Sydney are competing with the Harvard’s of the world, so their focus is on high-end research.
“Rural med schools like James Cook University in Townsville are focused on making sure students spend lots of time in rural areas.”
Dr Stephenson dismissed the Australian Medical Students’ Association’s strong objection to a new medical school in the bush.
“You wonder if they're somehow beholden to their metropolitan mentors running the political scare campaign,” he said
The proposed Riverina Medical School was first suggested by federal MP Michael McCormack in 2013, but was passed over in last year’s budget.
However, Mr McCormack has since renewed his commitment to teaching doctors in his own back-yard.
“It is a priority of the government to address the shortages of doctors in regional, rural and remote areas,” Mr McCormack said.
“I have met with Assistant Minister for Rural Health David Gillespie to discuss the need for a rural medical school in Wagga.
“I have welcomed the announcement by (Mr Gillespie) that the government will review the distribution of medical school places and consider ways in which workforce need in regional, rural and remote Australia can best be addressed.”
