Brooke Plunkett, Communications and Engagement Specialist Evolution Mining, Dr Kerry Stuart, Head of Campus Central West Clinical School, second year student Josh Brown, third year student John O’Brien, fourth year student Antez Varghese and third year student Joseph Pearce.
The shortage of doctors in regional Australia has been something that has impacted most, if not all of us. Evolution has proudly partnered with Charles Sturt University (CSU) School of Rural Medicine to provide a space for a training program with the aim of helping address the shortage.
CSU’s Rural Doctors Program trains and develops medical students who want to remain living and working in regional areas.
Unfortunately, until now, there has not been a facility to run this program in Parkes.
Northparkes will provide the space for this program, which will have 11 Central West medical students based out of the facility from the day it opens.
Local GP Kerrie Stewart said we have a pipeline of some of the best students in Australia, who we know want to stay local.
“They were raised here and have families here. This space is the opportunity we have been waiting for,” she said.
The program will provide more access to medical services through clinician lead clinics with student involvement for things like health checks, childhood vaccinations, and more.
The building will be a shared space and contain the Northparkes Town Office, a purpose-built training facility and the CSU Rural Doctors Program.
Four of the eleven students who are local to Parkes and Forbes have indicated they will stay in the area once they have completed their studies.
Fourth year student Antez Vargese said “I wanted to do medicine straight after high school but I went and did radiography for a year first, and when I found out about this program, it was close to home, my friends, my community, it just made sense.
The students will each complete five years of medical school and then go on to be an intern and then a resident before deciding what to specialise in.