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AN intensive care registrar working at Bendigo Health believes La Trobe University’s plans to open a medical school in Bendigo will worsen the rural doctor shortage, not solve it.
Dr James Garrard says the new $600 million Bendigo Hospital should instead be allowed to grow into a centre for regional specialty training, allowing graduates to stay in the regions to complete their training.
He is among the many young doctors forced to relocate to Melbourne to carry out about six years of specialty training, rather than stay in Bendigo.
La Trobe University has proposed to open the Murray Darling Medical School, in conjunction with Charles Sturt University, adding 60 students per year each in Bendigo, Orange and Wagga Wagga.
Dr Garrard said increasing the number of medicine graduates would not help the rural doctor shortage.
“There already exists a strong presence of excellent and enthusiastic medical students who spend substantial amounts of time in Bendigo from Monash and the University of Melbourne,” he said.
“The solution is careful planning and development of the training infrastructure that is already in place.
“In addition to the benefits this would present to the community, it would also mean that trainees such as myself could settle in and complete the bulk of our training in Bendigo.”
The number of medical graduates in Australia more than doubled from 1503 in 2004 to 3441 in 2013, while the number of specialty training places has not increased at the same pace.
The Australian Medical Students Association has opposed the plan from the outset, and agrees that the proposal takes away from efforts to improve specialty training in regional areas.
The Murray Darling Medical School is proposed to include longer periods of medical study in Bendigo, compared with Monash and Melbourne universities.
La Trobe University vice-chancellor John Dewar believes the plan would be a “catalyst” for governments to increase specialty training opportunities in regional areas.
The university is seeking funding from the federal government for the $46 million plan.
A spokesperson for La Trobe University said the Murray Darling Medical School would be an “improvement” on the current system in Bendigo.
“We agree there’s a need for additional regional specialty training for doctors,” he said.
“There simply aren’t enough doctors in regional Victoria. Our proposal would be three to five times more efficient than the current system.”