Mackay, Bowen, Proserpine welcomes 44 new doctors

As the RACGP president warns regions face dire consequences should ‘severe’ doctor shortages continue, a dose of first-year doctors will intern at North Qld hospitals.

Forty-four intern doctors will join the Mackay Hospital and Health Service ranks at Mackay, Bowen, and Proserpine hospitals. Picture: Supplied

A dose of doctors will bolster ranks in regional Queensland after a leading doctor predicted dire consequences should medical graduates keep shying away from general practice.

The group of 44 first-year doctors have chosen North Queensland to complete their internships across the Mackay Hospital and Health Service.

MHHS interim chief executive Melissa Carter welcomed the interns which included 37 signing on at Mackay Base Hospital, five at Proserpine Hospital and two at Bowen Hospital.

The interns will soften the blow of what Mackay-based Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president Dr Nicole Higgins described as a “maldistribution of GPs in Australia with the most severe shortages in rural and remote communities”.

“As a regional GP in Mackay, I am seeing the impact of GP practices forced to close because they have no GPs,” Dr Higgins said earlier.

“It is truly devastating”.

MHHS chief medical officer Dr Charles Pain said he hoped the 2023 interns would choose to remain in the Mackay region following their internships.

First-year doctor Aleksandar Banic will join the Mackay Hospital and Health Service ranks. Picture: Supplied

Among the intern group is Whitsunday Anglican School alumni Aleksandar Banic who studied medicine at James Cook University in Townsville and completed his fifth-year placement at Mackay Base Hospital.

“I started to become interested in medicine in early high school and the reason at the forefront of that was wanting to help people in such a fundamental way,” Dr Banic said.

“That’s stayed the reason and is the fuel behind why I am practising medicine today.

“At this point in time I’m just focused on being a well-rounded doctor. The internship is all about going through different rotations so that you can expand your breadth of knowledge.”

First-year doctor Jessica Chambers will join the Mackay Hospital and Health Service ranks. Picture: Supplied

For first-year doctor Jessica Chambers, who moved north with her engineer partner, the Mackay region presents a slice of hometown country life having grown up on a “little farm with a lot of animals” in northeastern NSW.

“My dad is a vet and I love veterinary medicine,” Dr Chambers said.

“I could only imagine that practising medicine with humans and interacting with people would be amazing, so that’s why I went into medicine.”

Dr Chambers said she was “really passionate” about generalist rural medicine with Queensland providing the right fit.

First-year doctor Michael Chamberlain will join the Mackay Hospital and Health Service ranks. Picture: Supplied

Hailing from Rockhampton is fellow JCU student Michael Chamberlain, who said he was “excited” about MHHS’ internships with GP placements, something he said was rarely offered to first-year doctors.

Ms Carter said the interning doctors were building the foundations of their medical careers which would serve the Queensland community “for decades to come”.

Thirty-two of the first-year doctors are from the Queensland Health program, six from the Queensland Rural Generalist Pathway and six from the Commonwealth-funded Junior Doctor Training Program.

Originally published as Mackay, Bowen, Proserpine welcomes 44 new doctors