A state-of-the-art teaching facility will be built in Wagga to accommodate the city’s new medical school.
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The school, announced in Tuesday’s budget, will be an expansion of the existing University of NSW Medicine’s Rural Clinical School in Wagga and will begin delivering the new “end-to-end” program from 2021.
The budget allocated $95 million to create a network of teaching sites in NSW and Victoria. Of that, $60 million has been earmarked for infrastructure.
Head of UNSW Medicine’s Wagga campus, Associate Professor John Preddy, said the current plan could see the existing community health building in Docker Street demolished and replaced by the new teaching facility.
“This is an exciting extension to our successful program at Wagga that’s been running for 17 years,” Professor Preddy said.
“This proposal will provide a total workforce solution for the Riverina region. It will help prioritise an intake of rural students and a strong partnership with regional health districts.”
UNSW Medicine’s Rural Clinical School was established to address medical doctor workforce shortages in rural and remote areas.
Associate Dean Lesley Forster said the clinical school’s expansion would change the way medicine was taught in Australia.
“What it means is that kids in this region will be able to go to medical school as they start university, close to home, where they have got the support of their families and their friends,” Professor Forster said.
“It’s a huge advantage for local kids and it actually changes the whole way medicine is taught in Australia.”
Vice-chancellor of Charles Sturt University Andrew Vann, a long-time proponent of a medical school in Wagga, has welcomed the announcement, even though it is not exactly as he had envisaged.
"Some of the money has gone to CSU, the government announcement covers university partnerships and the Orange node has been joined with Western Sydney University. There are 30 Commonwealth supported places to start that up, but then the University of NSW will be doing end-to-end medical training in Wagga," Professor Vann said.
"This is a bit different to our original (rural medical school) bid, but this is where it ended up and I think it's a good result. I think, actually, the fact that we've got metropolitan-based universities committing to full training in regional areas is quite a game-changer. It's different to our original proposal but the spirit of it is what we argued for is embodied and full credit to the government for delivering.
"In short, students will be able to go from high school to the point of being a qualified doctor ready to enter post-graduate training. There's been a lot of lobbying, this is a great government decision and it really is the right long-term approach to fix the problem. Keeping students in regional areas west of the great divide is fantastic."
Barbara Cameron, a graduate of the Rural Clinical School was motivated to stay working in southern NSW when she saw the variety of opportunities rural practice provides.
“I grew up in Bourke where my father was in general practice and I always knew I wanted to continue to work in rural towns,” said Dr Cameron.
Completing her medical degree in Wagga in 2011, Dr Cameron finished her junior doctor placement in Gundagai, where she continues to work as a GP.
“Rural work allows for a breadth of practice that links me to the community and means I can provide continuity of care to my patients, particularly through pregnancy, childbirth and beyond,” she said.
“I work in general practice during the day and I’m on call Gundagai District Hospital once a week which gives me the opportunity to work across a huge range of disciplines.”