Uni tackling challenges to train more medical professionals locally

UNSW Associate Dean of Rural Health, School of Clinical Medicine, Tara Mackenzie raised concerns at the challenges medical students face when studying in the Riverina as she addressed the Special Commission of Inquiry into Healthcare Funding at the Wagga Courthouse on Wednesday.

Ms Mackenzie said while students receive support including subsidised accommodation in first year, they are faced with challenges when needing to complete placements outside of Wagga.

She said there was a lack of appropriate accommodation facilities in towns with students having to stay in hotels while completing placements for their studies.

Ms Mackenzie said while GP placements in towns were popular, another barrier was that although doctors are keen to take on students, in some cases they simply did not have the time to do so.

She told the inquiry the university is currently funded to take 60 rural medical students, with 25 studying at Wagga.

However she said if funding was not a limit, they could easily train up more.

"I am very confident we would easily have 35 to 40 students at...Wagga," she said.

Ms Mackenzie said there are many benefits to studying in regional areas.

"Students here know their clinicians... [and] we can help develop their careers and... knowledge because we're more invested in them," she said.

Ms Mackenzie is a trained respiratory practitioner who herself faced pressure to avoid a country move when she left the big smoke for Wagga many years ago.

She told the inquiry when she left the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in 2007 to continue her work out west, she was discouraged from doing so.

While Ms Mackenzie said she "genuinely" loves the RPA, she was "told that I was throwing my career away when I came to Wagga."

"Nothing could be further from the truth," she said.

Ms Mackenzie said she wants students training in metro areas to understand that they have a choice.

Ms Mackenzie has worked with UNSW for many years but in the last few she has taken on her current role overseeing the re-structuring of the Wagga rural medicine course designed to enable students to complete the vast majority of their training in the regions.

Prior to 2021, students at the Wagga campus were required to leave the city to complete the final years of their course, however this will soon no longer be the case.

To assist with this, the UNSW will move into its new quarters currently under construction on Edward Street in January 2025.

Ms Mackenzie said she hopes this will mean their present building - previously nursing quarters - can be converted back into accommodation.

"We'd like to see the former nursing quarters freed up for accommodation [when we move out]," she said.

Ms Mackenzie also told the inquiry of exciting school programs helping encourage students to enter the medical sector down the track.

Among these are a bespoke session where parents and interested students are invited to the Wagga campus where they get some hands-on experience including how to use an epi pen and stethoscope.

Ms Mackenzie said she also visits students in more remote towns including Hillston and even went out to Finley despite there being just one student interested there.

"I think it's really important that child in Finley sees they are just as important as a student in Sydney," she said.

The hearings will continue on Thursday with several speakers including MLHD director of primary care Alam Yoosuff and Wagga Base general manager Len Bruce.

On Friday, the Wagga hearings will wrap up with an appearance of MLHD chief executive Jill Ludford.