WA’s third medical school has graduated its first cohort, which has been welcomed by a health system struggling to find staff.
Cathy O’Leary reports
Back in May 2012, then-Premier Colin Barnett had doctors choking on their hors d’oeuvres at a function when he scolded the Australian Medical Association for opposing Curtin University’s plan to build a third medical school in WA.
At the time, the AMA and the Australian Medical Students’ Association had been warning that there was no capacity to train extra graduates on top of those coming out of the medical schools at the University of WA and University of Notre Dame.
But Mr Barnett was having none of it, telling the opponents that Australia did not train enough of its own doctors and was “plundering” disadvantaged countries of their medicos.
Curtin went on to overcome the hurdles, gaining Federal and State government support and duly opened its medical school in 2017, offering the only undergraduate entry program in WA.
And last year it celebrated its first cohort of graduates – with the 53 inaugural domestic students completing the five-year, full-time Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) course.
Curtin University Vice-Chancellor Professor Harlene Hayne said the new graduates had been trained to meet the needs of under-serviced areas of health care, with a strong emphasis on primary care, chronic disease, ageing, Indigenous and regional health.
“Curtin first established its medical school to help address the health and workforce needs of West Australians, and we are now incredibly proud to celebrate the first graduating cohort of Curtin-trained doctors, who are eager and ready to provide competent and compassionate medical care, particularly to those people who currently have inadequate access to healthcare,” Professor Hayne said.
“They have had the benefit and privilege of being able to train and gain practical clinical experience at hospitals across the State, and in Curtin’s own purpose-built health campus at Midland and recently our new Kalgoorlie Rural Health Campus.”
The dean of the medical school, Professor Sandra Eades, said the new doctors had been trained to the highest standards of the Australian Medical Council, and were ready to take on internships and future specialisation anywhere in WA or Australia.
“The key purpose and mission of Curtin’s medical school has remained unchanged from the time it was established, which is to increase the availability of high-quality medical care and to educate doctors that are well-prepared for primary care, rural, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander healthcare settings,” she said.
As part of their studies, many of the graduating doctors completed clinical placements in rural areas including Broome, Kalgoorlie, Geraldton and Albany.
Curtin has 120 places available this year – 110 domestic and 10 international – up from the 60 places offered in 2017.