Plibersek shelves bush medical school

HEALTH Minister Tanya Plibersek has shelved a proposal for a new regional-based medical school.

Plibersek

HEALTH Minister Tanya Plibersek has shelved a proposal from Charles Sturt and La Trobe universities for a new regional-based medical school, arguing there isn't enough capacity in hospitals and clinics to support additional internships.

A spokesman for Ms Plibersek said the federal government was working with the states and territories to avert a repeat of last year's crisis when it seemed about 180 international medical students would be left without the internships they needed to qualify as doctors.

The spokesman couldn't say when the government would be confident enough of internship capacity to consider a new medical school.

"The government is committed to ensuring that there is sufficient capacity for high quality training for the current students and trainees in the medical training pipeline before considering any new medical schools, or additional medical places," he said.

Charles Sturt vice-chancellor Andrew Vann said he was disappointed but would continue to push for the school.

He noted that the government had been able to solve last year's crisis by finding additional places and he hoped it could find to a permanent solution to the shortage as soon as possible.

Professor Vann argues that a regional-based medical school would be more effective in overcoming a chronic shortages of doctors in regional and rural areas, and that priority should be given to such a school.