RMSA supports the National Medical Workforce Strategy 2021-2031

Click here to visit the publication at the Australian Government website.

Background:

Australia has not been able to sustain a medical workforce which was distributed in the same proportions as the Australian population.

Around seven million people, or 29% of Australia’s population, live in rural and remote areas.

Yet the distribution of medical graduates is vastly different^[1]:

Quotes from the National Medical Workforce Strategy, endorsed by Australian Health Ministers in December 2021:

The medical workforce has a profound impact on the quality, accessibility, effectiveness and sustainability of the health system. However, inequality of access to health services remains a key issue for Australian communities. To achieve maximum benefit to the community, the medical workforce must be geographically well distributed and have the appropriate mix of medical specialties in each location.

Investment in metropolitan tertiary centres provides high-quality services but has created metro-centric training systems… During consultations on the Strategy, selection of trainees was criticised for its focus on academic skills rather than the broad range of skills needed for the specific specialty.

The National Medical Workforce Strategy notes the way this has discouraged medical specialist training in non-Metropolitan centres and proposed a broad suite of measures aimed at correcting this:

The intent is to increase training opportunities in rural locations that support trainees to complete the majority of their training in a rural location… As regional and rural registrars, they should have preferential access and support for any training required in metropolitan hospitals. This enables doctors to settle in a community when they are typically forming partnerships, building a family and a home.

A number of specialist medical colleges are developing pathways to provide more rural training. One example of this is the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons Rural Committee and its development of a Rural Health Equity Strategic Action Plan, which outlines its rural health strategies Represent for Rural, Select for Rural, Train for Rural, Retain for Rural and Collaborate for Rural.

The Regional Training Hubs are designed to facilitate this ‘end-to-end’ approach.  They are based in Universities with substantial rural campuses and clinical schools.  Their aim is to work across the continuum of medical training to help Universities, State Health Departments and specialist training colleges to build the resources and support systems to:

• Recruit more students from rural/regional areas into medical schools;
• Establish more medical school places in rural/regional locations;
• Have more internship and junior doctor training based in rural/regional locations, and
• Establish post-graduate specialist (including Rural Generalist) training programs which are predominantly based in non-Metropolitan centres.

The current Regional Training Hubs are:

University	State	Rural clinical school (RCS)	University department of rural health (UDRH)	Regional training hub (RTH)	Dental training site
Australian National University	ACT	ANU RCS		South East NSW RTH
Charles Sturt University	NSW		Three Rivers UDRH
Curtin University	WA	Curtin Medical School Rural Health Campus RCS of Western Australia (partnership with the University of Western Australia)
Deakin University	Vic	Deakin Rural Clinical School	Deakin Rural Health	Western Victoria RTH
Flinders University	NT, SA	NT Medical Program Rural and Remote Health SA	Remote Interprofessional Placement Learning NT Centre for Remote Health NT	Northern Territory RTH Limestone Coast/Riverland RTH
Griffith University	Qld	Griffith RCS			Griffith dental training site
James Cook University	Qld	James Cook University RCS	Mount Isa Centre for Rural and Remote Health	North Queensland RTH
La Trobe University	Vic		La Trobe Rural Health School
Monash University	Vic	Monash University RCS	Monash School of Rural Health	Gippsland and North West Victoria RTH
The University of Adelaide	Sa	Adelaide RCS		Eyre Peninsula and Spencer Gulf RTH	Adelaide Dental School
The University of Melbourne	Vic	The University of Melbourne Rural Clinic Schools	University of Melbourne Department of Rural Health	Goulburn Valley RTH	University of Melbourne Dental School
The University of Newcastle	NSW	Peel, Manning and Tablelands RCS	University of Newcastle Department of Rural Health	North West NSW RTH
The University of Notre Dame Australia	NSW, Vic, WA	Lithgow, Ballarat and Wagga Wagga clinical schools RCS of Western Australia (partnership with the University of Western Australia)	Majarlin Kimberley UDRH	Riverina RTH
The University of Queensland	Qld	UQ RCS	Southern Queensland Rural Health	UQ Regional Training Hubs	UQ Rural Dental Clinics
The University of Sydney	NSW	University of Sydney School of Rural Health	University Centre for Rural Health Broken Hill University Department of Rural Health	Western NSW Far West NSW Northern NSW RTH	University of Sydney School of Dentistry
The University of Western Australia	WA	RCS of Western Australia	Western Australian Centre for Rural Health	UWA Rural Training Hubs	UWA Dental School
University of New South Wales	NSW	University of New South Wales Rural Clinic School		UNSW Medicine Regional Training Hubs
University of South Australia	SA		UniSA Department of Rural Health
University of Tasmania	Tas	University of Tasmania Rural Clinical School	University of Tasmania Centre for Rural Health	Tasmanian RTH
University of Wollongong	NSW	University of Wollongong School of Medicine		Clarence Valley RTH  (shared with University of Sydney)
Western Sydney University	NSW	Western Sydney University Rural Clinical Schools

The RMSA supports this policy and is eager to work with all parties including the Regional Training Hubs to achieve the aim of steady but sustained re-alignment of the Australian Medical workforce to the distribution and make-up of the Australian people.

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¹MM refers to the Modified Monash Model.  The Modified Monash Model (MM) defines whether a location is a city, rural, remote or very remote. The model measures remoteness and population size on a scale of MM category MM 1 to MM 7, with M1 being major metropolitan areas and M7 very remote communities (eg Longreach, Coober Pedy)