University leaders are confident the opening of a medical school in Western Australia will strengthen the case for a similar set-up in the Murray-Darling region.
The Federal Government is spending $20 million on the WA project to help increase numbers of locally trained doctors.
La Trobe University wants to establish a medical school with a Bendigo campus to offer training for northern Victoria and remote New South Wales communities.
The project’s executive director, Mark Burdack, said the facility would make a big difference for rural students.
“The focus of the Murray-Darling medical school will be to increase significantly the number of Australian medical graduates issued rural practice as their first choice after they complete their training,” he said.
“They are going to back a new medical school. It’s the right solution for addressing rural doctor shortages, particularly in rural and regional Western Australia, and we see that as a good message for our community that if the Government thinks a new medical school is the right answer for Western Australia, then we don’t see any reason why it’s not also the right answer for rural and remote Victoria.”