Sept. 18, 2012, 4 a.m.

DELEGATES at the Nationals' Federal Conference carried a motion on Sunday supporting Charles Sturt University's proposal to establish a new medical school to address chronic shortages of doctors in rural and regional Australia.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) vice-chancellor Professor Andrew Vann said, "We welcome this very public commitment by The Nationals to the establishment of a new medical school at Charles Sturt University.

He said the support followed news this week that more than 21,000 Australians had signed up on Facebook as supporters of Charles Sturt University's planned medical school.

"While we remain hopeful that the current government will fund this initiative in the next federal budget, it is important for rural and regional communities to know that the Nationals are committed to this initiative," Professor Vann said.

"I think there is a growing recognition across all political parties of the serious impact that the rural doctor shortage has on the lives of families and individuals in our communities.

"There also appears to be an increased awareness that people will not live in rural towns, let alone move here, if they can't get access to a doctor when they need one."

He said the commitment by The Nationals follows mounting evidence current rural medical education strategies are not working, and the need to focus more on resources for rurally-based and delivered programs if government was serious about addressing rural doctor shortages.

"For example, a cross-party Senate inquiry into rural medical workforce shortages reported in August this year that city medical schools had consistently failed to meet minimum recruitment targets for rural medical students, despite all the evidence that a rural doctor is significantly more likely to have come from a rural area and been trained in a rural area," Professor Vann said.

"Charles Sturt University's proposed solution to the rural doctor shortage is not only supported by a wealth of national and international evidence, it has the overwhelming support of rural and regional Australians."

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Nationals support new medical school at Charles Sturt