Regional Training Hub for Southern Queensland to train medical students locally

May 19, 2022

A re-elected Liberal National Government will establish a new Regional Training Hub in Southern Queensland, which will support students intending to practice rurally to complete much of their training in the regions.

The Southern Queensland hub will provide Griffith University the opportunity to join James Cook University and the University of Queensland in their work with the Queensland Department of Health in supporting students and trainees across rural and remote areas of the state. This hub will service the Toowoomba, Darling Downs and south western Queensland region.

Providing Griffith University with hub funding will ensure their medical students and graduates have the same level of support as other universities to continue their medical training and practice in the regions.

Federal Regional Health Minister, Dr David Gillespie announced the new hub as part of a $3.9 million commitment to fund three new hubs across Australia to strengthen the pipeline of regional and rural doctors.

“These hubs will create and navigate a rural pathway for young doctors and will improve the retention of medical graduates across rural and regional Australia,” Dr Gillespie, a former regional doctor, said.

“The hubs do this through a range of approaches including supporting current supervisors of clinical training, assisting health services in obtaining accreditation for new training positions, and supporting local medical practitioners to become clinical supervisors.

Nationals Member for Maranoa, David Littleproud, welcomed the commitment, which will be a key component to training and retaining medical professionals in the region.

“This hub will mean that more students will have the opportunity to train in Southern Queensland and hopefully choose to stay here where their skills and training are needed the most,” Minister Littleproud said.

LNP Member for Groom, Garth Hamilton, said the new hub will complement the other rural training initiatives funded by the Coalition Government.

“This builds on recent workforce investments in our region, including expanded allied health and aged care training based out of Toowoomba through the RHMT program,” Mr Hamilton said.

There are currently 26 hubs in regional Australia operating through the Rural Health Multidisciplinary Training (RHMT) program, growing to 29 under a re-elected Coalition Government.

Dr Gillespie said today’s announcement builds on a recent commitment from the Coalition Government that will deliver a more than $1 billion injection, including $146 million of new investment, to improve rural health and bring more doctors to regional Australia.

The commitment from the Coalition Government includes:

• $35 million to significantly expand the successful Innovative Models of Collaborative Care program across rural and regional Australia from 1 January 2023. The program will attract, support and retain rural health professionals to deliver care on the ground.
• $15 million to expand the John Flynn Prevocational Doctor Program to more than 1,000 placements in rural Australia per year by 2026. This will train the next generation of junior doctors through placements in rural and regional general practice and prime them ready for the Australian General Practice Training Program.
• Our plan will also support more GPs to work in country hospitals and treat patients in the community by expanding the Murrumbidgee single employer model trial to more regions across rural Australia.
• $9 million for additional training posts outside of community general practice for rural generalists and GP registrars, and Fellowed GPs to undertake advanced skills training – like obstetrics, palliative care, paediatrics and mental health – that are needed in their community.
• $87 million to provide additional workforce incentives to GP’s and allied health professionals to provide further targeted support to rural generalists with additional education and skills to work in the regions, and to support the engagement of nurses, nurse practitioners and allied health professionals as part of local multidisciplinary care teams.

This commitment builds our $550 million investment in the Stronger Rural Health Strategy announced in the 2018–19 budget and the approximately $300 million of additional investments in the recent 2022-23 Budget, including:

• $99.3 million for 80 additional Commonwealth Supported Places so more students can study medicine at rural campuses.
• $66 million to make it easier and more affordable to access Medicare funded MRI scans in all regional, rural and remote Australia from 1 November 2022.
• $36.2 million to establish two new University Departments of Rural Health (UDRH) in the South West (Edith Cowan University) and Goldfields (Curtin University) regions of Western Australia.
• $14.8 million to support Charles Sturt University to deliver a Rural Clinical School. We are also continuing support for the National Rural Health Students Network of Rural Health Clubs with $2.1 million over four years.
• An additional $33.3 million over four years towards a 10-year strategic agreement with the Royal Flying Doctor Service worth almost $1 billion.
• $14.3 million to expand nursing and allied health student training in aged care to another five locations in the Northern Territory, Victoria, New South Wales and remote Queensland.

Only the Coalition has a plan to continue delivering a strong economy and a stronger future for regional Australia.