Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I, and also on behalf of Senator Fawcett, move:

That the Senate—

(a) celebrates the success of Rural Clinical Schools (RCS) around Australia, commenced in 1999 by the then Minister for Health and Aged Care, Dr Wooldridge, and continued by a subsequent former Minister for Health and Ageing, Mr Abbott;

(b) notes that:

(i) RCS were designed to overcome the maldistribution of all doctors, including general practitioners, across Australia, which left country regions short of general practitioners and other specialty doctors,

(ii) students undertaking training in rural locations have academic results that are equal to, or better than, their metropolitan counterparts,

(iii) published data from public universities show high rates of RCS graduates working in, or intending to work in, rural areas, and

(iv) the information gathered through an independent project tracking all Australian and New Zealand medical students, the Medical Schools Outcomes Database, demonstrates that long-term placements in a rural setting through RCS have a significant impact on the vocational choice and intention to practise in a rural or remote setting as well as future career specialty focus; and

(c) calls on the Government to:

(i) continue its support for these excellent initiatives, and

(ii) expand opportunities to create intern and postgraduate training places in rural locations to enhance the future of specialty medical service delivery with a focus on general practitioners in rural and regional Australia.