SYDNEY University’s furious response to Calare MP Andrew Gee’s vocal support for the establishment of a rural medical school should hearten the proposal’s supporters.
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Sydney Uni’s School of Rural Health has hit back at Mr Gee’s claims that traditional sandstone universities had taken a “predatory” approach to addressing a doctor shortage across regional Australia.
Mr Gee says the establishment of a Murray Darling Medical School – a joint initiative between Charles Sturt University and La Trobe University – is the best way to create a ready-made workforce of rural doctors into the future.
He says the difficulty so many smaller towns and cities face already trying to attract doctors is proof the current system doesn’t work, while also citing studies that say graduates who train in the bush are more likely to practise in the bush.
Not surprisingly, Sydney Uni sees it differently. The sandstone universities have built their reputations on prestige degrees such as medicine and law, and clearly don’t fancy competition from upstarts like CSU and La Trobe.
They reject the notion they are not doing enough to train rural doctors, pointing to the 800 medical students who have graduated from the Sydney Uni School of Rural Health after doing “extended medical placements” between 2004 and 2017.
Sydney Uni says better post-graduate pathways for young doctors are needed rather than more training places for doctors at university. Call us cynical but they would say that, wouldn’t they?
It’s hard to escape the conclusion that the big universities’ opposition to a rural medical school is based more on concern for their own reputation and finances than health services for the bush.
Yes, country areas have benefited from young doctor placements through the School of Rural Health but they are all scuttling back to the city once they have their degree.
We know that to be the case because too many towns can’t find a qualified GP.
Regardless of how Sydney Uni tries to spin it, that’s the reality too many residents west of the Great Divide are living.
Mr Gee still has a mountain to climb to secure funding for the MDMS but he has always said he was in the fight for the long haul.
If Sydney University is finally starting to squirm a little, though, then maybe we’re closer to victory than we previously thought.
