More than 100 students studying medicine, nursing, midwifery, allied health and dentistry have completed the rural part of their training in Mildura under Morrison Joyce Government-funded programs, which has boosted access to doctors, dentists and health professionals for local patients.
\nFederal Member for Mallee, Dr Anne Webster said the Morrison Joyce Government supported regional and rural health training, because it resulted in more doctors and health professionals staying in the bush after they graduate.
\nVisiting La Trobe and Monash universities in Mildura today with Federal Regional Health Minister, Dr David Gillespie, Dr Webster said Federal Government investment through the Rural Health Multidisciplinary Training (RHMT) program gave more students more opportunities to train locally.
\n\u201cTo achieve a stable, reliable and dedicated workforce in healthcare throughout Mallee, we need to pull out every tool in the toolbox. Regional training centres like Monash University and La Trobe University are essential to achieving this outcome,\u201d Dr Webster said.
\n\u201cOur Government provides $6.65 million to La Trobe University under the RHMT program, so students can train and do placements here in Mildura.
\n\u201cLast year, La Trobe students completed more than 190 nursing, midwifery and allied health placements in Mildura, equating to more than 835 training weeks.
\n\u201cAdditionally, our government provides funding of $48.3 million to Monash University under the RHMT Program.\u201d
\nDr Gillespie, a regional doctor for more than 30 years, said in Mildura last year, 16 Monash students completed 12-month medical placements; 21 completed six-month medical placements; and more than 25 short-term medical placements took place, equating to more than 160 training weeks.
\nAdditionally, Monash students completed more than 45 nursing, midwifery and allied health placements, equating to more than 170 completed training weeks.
\n\u201cTo ensure this can run smoothly, 14 local staff support the students across the two programs,\u201d Dr Webster said.
\nMinister Gillespie said the Government was tackling the challenges associated with Australia\u2019s health workforce maldistribution head-on.
\n\u201cThe RHMT Program and the Murray-Darling Medical Schools Network are two of the Government\u2019s flagship training programs aimed at bridging the city-country divide in health services and training opportunities,\u201d Dr Gillespie said.
\n\u201cThese programs are a win-win-win for students, patients and host communities, which benefit from the local jobs created and the placements trainees undertake. They expose students to many of the unique challenges facing rural patients.\u201d
\nDr Webster said that training health students in regional areas is an essential step to ensuring a sustainable health workforce in regional areas such as Mildura.
\n\u201cThe reality is that we have enough medical graduates, but the distribution of those graduates is heavily weighted in metropolitan areas. I want to see more health professionals choosing to come to regional centres and invest into the local community on a long-term basis,\u201d Dr Webster said.
\n\u201cThe Liberal and Nationals Government will continue to fight to see solutions for regional people. Regional, rural and remote Australia are not an afterthought for this government: they are a priority.
\n\u201cThat is why I continue to fight for funding for a biomed undergraduate course for La Trobe University in Mildura. This would provide a proven entrance to a medical degree in Mildura and coupled with the post graduate courses available at Monash would secure workforce into the future.\u201d
\nMonash University receives $7.88 million in funding from the Morrison Joyce Government for a new \u2018rural intention\u2019 stream to the existing intake of its four-year graduate entry medical program in Gippsland; 30 students who started this program in Gippsland in 2021 will move to Mildura and Bendigo to complete the remainder of their degree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
More than 100 students studying medicine, nursing, midwifery, allied health and dentistry have completed the rural part of their training in Mildura under Morrison Joyce Government-funded programs, which has boosted access to doctors, dentists and health professionals for local patients. Federal Member for Mallee, Dr Anne Webster said the Morrison Joyce Government supported regional and … Continue reading “Bringing more medical and health students to Mildura”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14295\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}