Call to lift cap on medical students as SA Health has record intern intake

It’s a photo of the next generation of SA’s doctors and health professionals – but the truth behind it is good news, at long last.

A record 313 medical interns start work this week in South Australian public hospitals – as Health Minister Chris Picton calls for an end to the decade-long cap on medical students in local universities.

The vast majority of interns are from SA with 33 from interstate and 20 being overseas graduates, after every graduate in SA was offered a job.

Chief medical officer Dr Michael Cusack said “99 per cent” of offers to local graduates were usually accepted.

The interns include 30 working in regional hospitals, and is 28 more than last year and 40 more than in the last year of the Liberal government.

Some of the record 313 medical interns starting work this week with SA Health, this group at the Royal Adelaide Hospital orientation day for the Central Adelaide Local Health Network. Picture Brad Crouch

The intern year is the first year of practice for new doctors after graduating from medical school and provides extensive supervised clinical experience.

New RAH interns Dr Sophie Ludbrook, 25, and Dr Grace Mackenzie, 25. Picture Brad Crouch

New doctors undertake rotations across different areas of public hospitals, gaining experience and exposure to different specialities such as emergency, medicine, psychiatry and surgery.

In speeches welcoming the 129 interns starting at the Central Adelaide Local Health Network (CALHN), both Mr Picton and Dr Cusack emphasised they should take care of themselves while embarking on their new, occasionally stressful, careers as doctors.

“It’s fantastic to have the biggest ever intake of 313 new medical interns joining our workforce to help care for South Australians across our hospitals,” Mr Picton said.

“This record recruitment is yet another sign that we have been able to demonstrate we are hiring more doctors and building a bigger health system for South Australians.”

Mr Picton later called for the federal government to change the cap on places for medical students which has seen SA rely on overseas trained doctors to fill shortages, noting “it has been unchanged for 10 or 15 years.”

“Many many hundreds of places in medical schools could be grown if the federal government changed the cap – we need the federal government to change the rules around medical schools to get more smart South Australians into medical schools,” he said.

New interns starting work at CALHN, which covers the Royal Adelaide Hospital and Queen Elizabeth Hospital include Dr Sophie Ludbrook and Dr Grace Mackenzie, both 25 and from SA.

Both are weighing up their options for their future career paths but Dr Ludbrook said a “Utopian dream” is to run a mobile medical clinic treating homeless people.

MP for Adelaide Lucy Hood welcomed the interns starting at the RAH saying: “Having a large new team of dynamic medical interns in our hospitals, including at our flagship Royal Adelaide Hospital, is fantastic for our community.”