In Australia, we believe medical care is a right, no matter where you live.
I’ve sat with family members in the emergency department of Goulburn Valley Health and waited far too long, not because of any unwillingness to help but just because there were not enough staff to see the patients who needed care.
In Australia we also believe in freedom and, in a free country, people can live and work where they choose.
Unfortunately, we have a shortage of professional medical staff across regional Australia because many choose to work in the cities.
This has persisted despite many attempts to address it: extra money for regional doctors, for instance.
In our region, the shortage of health staff has meant longer wait times to see a GP and has put pressure on aged care.
The pandemic has made this worse.
Politicians rarely tell you this, but I will: There is no quick and easy fix.
Some of our best and brightest go off to study medicine at city universities, put down roots while they’re there for six years studying, and never come home.
The National Party understands we need long-term thinking as well as short-term strategies to address this.
The National Party established the Murray Darling Medical School, so our bright young students could study locally, and later, work locally, looking after our local people.
This collaboration between Melbourne and La Trobe universities means that for the first time ever, students will be able to study to become a doctor entirely in regional Victoria.
The existing school of rural health focused mainly on second-year medicine students.
This was fine, but most of the students went back to Melbourne for the rest of their degree, made connections there and never came home.
The Murray Darling school model has students doing a three-year undergraduate degree in biomedical science and then a four-year post graduate degree through the University of Melbourne in Shepparton, called ‘Doctor of Medicine’.
It means that from the end of 2025, we will have 30 young doctors a year graduating, having lived for four years at least in Shepparton.
It’s brilliant news which helps with a difficult problem.
Now I am fighting for a clinical health school in Shepparton.
This is an idea which has been developed by Goulburn Valley Health and La Trobe University.
It would work in the same way as the Doctor of Medicine but would also train nurses and other allied health professionals.
There are several studies which show people who study in the regions tend to work in the regions.
A big increase in nursing staff trained in Shepparton will mean more nurses in our hospitals and aged care facilities, looking after our families and our friends.
Sam Birrell is the Nationals candidate for the federal seat of Nicholls