18 January 2007
A total of 60 new places in medicine have been offered by Monash University and the University of Melbourne for students who will complete a significant part of their medical course in northern Victoria.
These students will join the Extended Rural Cohort (ERC) medical course stream developed under the Northern Victoria Regional Medical Education Network, a joint initiative of the two universities to extend the clinical training of medical students in rural and regional Victoria.
In June 2006, the Federal Government indicated its support for the Network by allocating 60 additional Commonwealth-supported places for medical students - 30 places to Monash University and 30 places to the University of Melbourne - for the ERC medical course stream.
Although the ERC stream was open to all eligible students, the universities particularly targeted the stream to applicants from northern Victoria and other regional areas, to increase the opportunities for rural and regional students to study medicine. In the first round of offers for university places, Monash University made 19 ERC offers to rural students including six from northern Victoria and the University of Melbourne made 23 ERC offers to rural students including 17 from northern Victoria.
Today the universities will congratulate the students from northern Victoria who received an offer of a place in the ERC stream.
The students are invited to meet academic and clinical staff and current students at the Monash University Regional Clinical Schools in Bendigo and Mildura, and at the University of Melbourne School of Rural Health in Shepparton.
University of Melbourne Dean of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, Professor James Angus, said the ERC is a new model of rural medical education which is designed to help meet the shortage of medical practitioners across rural Victoria.
"By pooling the resources from both universities we can maximise the efficient and effective use of scarce rural clinical educators, particularly in specialist disciplines. We are delighted to welcome this new generation of rural medical practitioners and look forward to seeing the positive impact they will have on the future healthcare of rural Victorians," Professor Angus said.
Rural clinical education will be co-managed from the Bendigo-Shepparton hub, utilising clinical resources (both hospital and community-based) in Bendigo, Echuca, Mildura, Shepparton, Swan Hill and Wangaratta and other centres and environs.
Students will undertake the majority of their clinical training (equivalent to four or five out of six semesters) in a regional or rural setting compared to only two semesters previously. It is hoped this will encourage the students to consider practice in a rural area following graduation.
A recent report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) shows there has been a fall of up to 31 per cent in the number of full time equivalent (FTE) medical practitioners across rural and remote Australia.
Monash Acting Vice-Chancellor Professor Stephen Parker said "The establishment of the Northern Victoria Regional Medical Education Network enables us to implement new initiatives like the Extended Rural Cohort stream, which can address the doctor shortages that have affected the communities of central and northern Victoria."
For more information please contact:
Monash University - Jocelyn Hunter on (03) 9902 0256 or 0408 527 092
University of Melbourne - Christina Buckridge on (03) 8344 6158 or 0412 101 316
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