EIGHT junior doctors are experiencing what it is like to practice in a rural area.
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East Grampians Health Service welcomed the interns as part of the Grampians Medical Training Program, based at Ararat.
The program is a partnership between St John of God Ballarat and Maryborough District Health Service and three clinics including the Ararat Medical Centre, Nightingale Medical Centre and Clarendon Medical Centre, both in Maryborough.
The eight interns completed their training in various universities including Monash, Melbourne, Notre Dame, Sydney, Queensland and Australian National University.
All are now working in their first year as doctors after medical school.
The interns will work on a rotation through the operating theatre at East Grampians Health Service and at the Ararat Medical Centre GP clinic.
The health service’s development and improvement manager Sarah Woodburn said the program was all about GP rotation and enabling the interns to do everything a rural GP does – including working as a GP obstetrician, anaesthetist and in the hospital.
“The idea is by training doctors in rural areas they are more likely to want to stay and practice in rural areas,” Ms Woodburn said.
“It’s all about increasing our medical workforce for the future.”
East Grampians Health Service chief executive Nick Bush said the feedback the health service had received about the program was that it gave the interns hands-on opportunities, which they rarely had access to while working in a metropolitan area.
The health service has been now been part of the intern program for four years.
East Grampians Health Service’s community services division has also been successful in recruiting a new crop of allied health staff to work at the community health centre.
Joining the department are two new occupational therapists, two physiotherapists and two exercise physiologists along with a speech pathologist and dietitian.
“Many of these staff are new graduates keen to use their new skills to help clients’ recovery,” community services acting director Jane Bourman said.