A fair go for the health of rural Australians
Charles Sturt University (CSU) submitted a detailed proposal to the Federal Government to gain support for the establishment of an Integrated Health and Medical Education Precinct in Orange, and a Medical and Health Services Precinct in Bathurst. The proposal aims to provide medical and health training for students and boost the number of health professionals for regional Australia and redress the shortage of doctors in the bush.
More doctors for the bush
Rural Australia has half the number of doctors compared to our capital cities, and chronic shortages of other essential health professionals. This shortage has persisted for more than 40 years. In a recent survey, 63% of rural respondents said they were not able to access a variety of health services in the past year because of a shortage or absence of health professionals in their area.
At the same time, rural Australians are more likely to have a chronic disease because of poor access to primary health care services and are significantly more likely to die from a preventable illness.
Sadly thousands of rural Australians die unnecessarily every year in one of the world's most developed nations, simply because of where they live. This is the equivalent of a domestic interstate airliner crashing in Australia every 2 weeks and killing everyone on board.
National and international evidence shows that if you train rural students to be doctors and other health professionals in the bush, they will remain to work in the bush.
A fair go for rural Australia
If you believe, like we do, that:
- its only fair that rural students are able to study to be a doctor or other health professional locally in a rural area, just like students who live in our capital cities; and
- that training rural students in rural areas is essential to increasing the number of doctors and health professionals in rural Australia;
then please register your support for Charles Sturt University proposed Health and Medical Education Precinct here.
Ms Audrey Hardman, OAM
Chair, Medical Education Community Consultative Committee
