FOR years, La Trobe University and Charles Sturt University have been seeking federal funding for a medical school.
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On Tuesday night, Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison announced funding for a new Murray Darling medical schools network, in which Bendigo will have a leading role.
It’s not quite the same thing as the original proposal, but La Trobe University is overjoyed all the same.
“It achieves the same outcome,” Vice-Chancellor John Dewar said.
“We are very pleased that after many years of advocacy, the federal government has finally recognised the need to address the rural doctor shortage by shifting the training out to the regions.”
He said the network would create a pathway for young people in rural areas who wanted to be rural doctors in a way that meant they did not have to go to Melbourne to study.
From next year, La Trobe University in Bendigo will offer a new course – a Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences (Medical).
Though they might start their studies at the La Trobe campus in Bendigo, the aspiring doctors will continue their education with the University of Melbourne in Shepparton.
“They will be able to do the whole thing, end-to-end, in regional Victoria,” Professor Dewar said.
La Trobe believes the partnership with the University of Melbourne to be unique.
University of Melbourne Vice-Chancellor Professor Glyn Davis welcomed the announcement of the medical schools network, of which the partnership with La Trobe is a part.
"This partnership with La Trobe University will allow even more rural and regional students to train as doctors, which will improve health service provision and outcomes for people living in those areas," Professor Davis said.
The original Murray Darling Medical School plan attracted criticism from the Australian Medical Students’ Association, which argued specialist training was the best way to bridge the city-country healthcare divide.
Professor Dewar was tonight hopeful moving more of the initial stage of medical training to the regions would then attract or encourage other phases of medical training out to the regions.
“The focus of the combined program will be to prepare students for regional practice, which often means more generalist practice,” he said.
He said students who wanted to engage in specialisations might have to go to Melbourne to complete that training, at this stage.
“The key thing about our collaboration is that it provides rural and regional Victorians an opportunity to commence a medical training pathway in Bendigo as soon as they finish school,” Professor Dewar said.
He described the announcement as a ‘great win for regional Victoria and a great thing for Bendigo’.
The Murray Darling medical schools network consists of Monash University in Bendigo and Mildura; Melbourne University and La Trobe University in Bendigo, Wodonga and Shepparton; the University of NSW in Wagga Wagga; the University of Sydney in Dubbo; and CSU/Western Sydney University in Orange.
Universities involved in the Murray Darling medical schools network will share in about $95.4 million.
Professor Robyn Langham, the head of Monash University’s School of Rural Health, said the network would allow the university to fill the gap of the years before the students embarked on clinical engagement.
“Traditionally what’s happened is medical students have started in traditional metropolitan-based universities doing their basic science,” she said.
“Then they hit their clinical placements, which is where they learn the science of their patients and diseases and wellness and so forth.
“For the last seven years we’ve had a program where nearly all of the clinical placements have been provided in Bendigo and Mildura.”
She said the network would flip the traditional model on its head, enabling a person who’s starting medical school to do so in a rural place and to finish in a rural place.
“The critical thing, for us, will be to deliver an entirely rural program and network into regional training hubs,” Professor Langham said.
The hubs – one of which is in Bendigo – will enable medical students to complete post-graduate training.
“It’s early days but the end-to-end training program will really help us,” Professor Langham said.
The Australian Medical Association has welcomed the government’s announcement of the Murray Darling medical schools network.
“There is a strong emphasis in this budget on building a rural training pipeline so that it will be possible for doctors to complete their medical degree in a rural area – and then continue to be able to work and train in these areas,” AMA president Michael Gannon said.
“The decision to reject the proposal for a stand-alone Murray Darling Medical School, in favour of a network, is a better approach with the government instead pursuing a policy that builds on existing infrastructure to create end-to-end medical school programs.”
Minister for Rural Health, Bridget McKenzie said the new network was a fundamental change in the training and supply of rural and regional doctors, which would transform the medical training pipeline.