CLEVELAND's Weippin Street has come another step closer to becoming a medical hub after five full-time intern doctors took up positions at Redland Hospital this month.
The graduate doctors will train at the hospital for two years before being qualified as rural general practitioners under the Rural Generalist Pathway program.
Of the 740 interns this year, 91 will undertake training in rural locations under the program set up by the Labor Government in 2006 to provide a constant flow of new doctors for rural Queensland.
The five in Redland will be joined by 12 medical interns from metropolitan hospitals who will spend the first term in Cleveland as part of their internship.
Redland Hospital medical services director Dr Rosalind Crawford said the expanded intern propgram at the hospital opened up great opportunities for training in Redland.
“Redland Hospital is really a country hospital in a city location,” she said.
“Over the next two years, the interns will gain experience and understanding of what it is like to work in a rural hospital where you don’t have the variety of services and support found in a tertiary-level facility.
“This will put them in good stead as they go on to pursue their future careers working in rural and remote locations across Australia.
“Of course, we hope that the opportunity to live and work on the bayside during their time with us may encourage the interns to one day return and choose Redland or the bay islands as the location for their future career.”
A record 740 graduates in medicine started work as interns in state hospitals this week as part of the Palaszczuk Government’s move to provide better frontline services.
Acting Minister for Health and Ambulance Services Dr Anthony Lynham said there was a 5per cent increase in the number of interns from 705 last year to 740 this year.
He said Redland was one of five hospitals to benefit from the increase in interns and would become a fully fledged training venue.
Other hospitals were Prince Charles, Cairns, Toowoomba and Mount Isa.
The biggest increase was on the Sunshine Coast where 54 interns started well up from the 42 last year.
The Queensland Rural Generalist Pathway, hosted by the Darling Downs Hospital and Health Service, aims to provide medical graduates with a supported training pathway to a career in rural medicine; and rural and remote communities with a skilled medical workforce.
The pathway is now the main source of rural medical workforce in Queensland, and this year will have more than double the number of Rural Generalist Intern Training positions than in 2013.
It provides doctors with procedural skills in obstetrics, emergency medicine and anaesthetics, Indigenous health, paediatrics and mental health and allows them to go on and specialise in rural and remote general practice.
