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Speaker 1: We know the Northern territories long standing local medical program

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Speaker 1: through Flinders University has welcomed its largest intake of medical students,

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Speaker 1: with thirty eight resident students and its first international cohort

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Speaker 1: undertaking the program. We know that there is a significant

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Speaker 1: need in the Northern Territory for a larger healthcare workforce

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Speaker 1: and by training them here, they're hopefully more likely to stay.

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Speaker 1: Now joining me on the line is the Flinders University

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Speaker 1: Dean of Rural and Remote Health, Professor Robin Aitken. Good

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Speaker 1: morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Robin, Good morning Katie, and good morning to your audience.

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Speaker 1: Lovely to have you on the show. Now, Professor, take

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Speaker 1: me through the numbers. How many have recently commenced the

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Speaker 1: medical program in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 2: So, Katie, we have got those thirty eight that you said,

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Speaker 2: plus international students. So we've got a cohort of forty

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Speaker 2: two students who's rather in their very first year.

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Speaker 1: That's great. I mean, it seems like does it are

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Speaker 1: they like? I mean, is that as many as you

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Speaker 1: were expecting? Is it more than you're expecting?

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Speaker 2: So this year we were expecting with many. We've been

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Speaker 2: increasing over the years and I think the last time

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Speaker 2: I spoke to you was before Christmas at our graduate

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Speaker 2: before our graduation, and we only graduated twenty four, which

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Speaker 2: has been the number that we've had for probably about

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Speaker 2: thirteen years. But we have had more funding from both

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Speaker 2: the Northern Territory Government and the Commonwealth government to have

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Speaker 2: more students.

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Speaker 1: Now, what are you thinks driving that interest in studying medicine?

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Speaker 2: Oh, listen, I think that medicine as a career is

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Speaker 2: something that is always attractive to people. But locally, as

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Speaker 2: we're hearing in the press every day, there is such

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Speaker 2: a need on the ground. Our programs are graduate program

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Speaker 2: so it's people who've already got careers who have been

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Speaker 2: thinking about, you know, what's my next step or what

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Speaker 2: is it that I'd really like to contribute to my community,

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Speaker 2: and medicine is a really good way of doing that.

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Speaker 1: Robin, can you tell us a bit about the cohort?

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Speaker 1: How many of them are local? I understand that there's

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Speaker 1: some international. What countries are they from?

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Speaker 2: So, as you said before, there's thirty eight local and

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Speaker 2: their Northern Territory residents. They do come from all over

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Speaker 2: the territory, not just Darlins. And then our international students

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Speaker 2: we have from Canada and one student from Cambodia.

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Speaker 1: Good stuff. And I mean, do you think that the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory for the students is a more attractive place

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Speaker 1: to study medicine when you look at you know, all

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Speaker 1: the different types of people that we've got living here,

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Speaker 1: all the different types of tropical diseases and different things

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Speaker 1: that we have got in the NT.

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Speaker 2: There is no doubt that to study medicine in the

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory you have experienced is for learning that you

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Speaker 2: get nowhere else in Australia. The complexity of health issues,

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Speaker 2: but also the amazing clinicians that they're learning from. We

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Speaker 2: have some of the best clinicians in the world working

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Speaker 2: in the Northern Territory in.

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Speaker 1: Terms of the different kinds of placements that they will do,

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Speaker 1: what kind of things are they going to get up to.

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Speaker 2: So accidents spent some time in Roaldoen Hospital and Palmerston,

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Speaker 2: they spend some time in our Springs Hospital, in Katherine

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Speaker 2: Hospital in go Of Hospital, and time at the GP

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Speaker 2: super Clinic out at Palmerston, and time in Congress in

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Speaker 2: Central Australia and then in many of the small communities

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Speaker 2: in East Dhna in Central Australia, and even when we've

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Speaker 2: got enough people to supervise over on the teaways.

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Speaker 1: And Professor I guess we always so when we have

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Speaker 1: home grown doctors. But even with the international students studying

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Speaker 1: here in the Northern Territory, we always hope that then

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Speaker 1: they'll want to stay and continue working in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: Do we get a big percentage remaining here?

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Speaker 2: We do, indeed, so we get fifty four percent of

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Speaker 2: the students who've been sent their entire program here in

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Speaker 2: the territory stay after their two years, so they do

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Speaker 2: return service to the Northern Territory help when they finish.

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Speaker 2: So there's two years of a guaranteed job for them

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Speaker 2: and two years that they're guaranteed to stay, but fifty

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Speaker 2: over fifty percent stay after that where they end up.

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Speaker 2: So if a student spends time in Alice Springs, eighty

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Speaker 2: percent of those students are likely to end up back

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Speaker 2: in Alice Springs. If they go to Catherine, ninety two

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Speaker 2: percent in the territory still, so those regional experiences are

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Speaker 2: not only exciting and interesting, they draw them back as

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Speaker 2: graduates and as doctors in those regions.

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Speaker 1: That's really good to hear, and I think it's sort

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Speaker 1: of it. You know, it really exemplifies why, you know,

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Speaker 1: why we want them studying here in the Northern territory.

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Speaker 1: If then it means the majority either come back or

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Speaker 1: remain here.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, and we know from research around Australia that people

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Speaker 2: are much more likely to stay in their local community

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Speaker 2: if they get to study the entire time and not

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Speaker 2: have to go away to another capital city to do

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Speaker 2: a course.

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Speaker 1: Just finally, I know obviously Labored announced earlier in the

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Speaker 1: week eight point five billion dollars an investment into Medicare.

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Speaker 1: It is promising to deliver more doctors by funding the

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Speaker 1: training of two thousand new GP trainees a year by

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty eight. What does that mean for Flinders UNI?

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Speaker 2: So for Flinda's UNI, that means that we have already

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Speaker 2: received some additional places in rural South Australia. We've got

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Speaker 2: a program that we are really well permissioned to apply

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Speaker 2: for more places because we can demonstrate that they actually

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Speaker 2: deliver those outcomes that those initiatives there ain't at, which

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Speaker 2: is more GPS, more people in regional Australia.

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Speaker 1: Well, Flinder's University's Dean of Rural and remote health Professor

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Speaker 1: Robin Aiken. It's always lovely to catch up with you.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time this morning.

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Speaker 2: It is Katie, Thank you so much.

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Speaker 1: Thank you