Opening Rural Medical Schools Won’t Fix Regional Doctor Shortage
Yesterday in an article published in the Sydney Morning Herald, Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack renewed the Nationals push for opening new rural medical schools. The proposal aims to combat the shortage of doctors in Australia’s regional areas by allowing medical students to study in the regions. It is thought that the students will be more likely to remain and practice medicine in these areas once they are qualified.
This proposal sounds like a good remedy. However, both the Australian Medical Association, and the Australian Medical Students Association strongly oppose the idea.
To find out why, we spoke with Alex Farrell, President of the Australian Medical Students Association, the peak representative body for medical students.
