Asolution to the Limestone Coast’s General Practitioner (GP) shortage could be coming in the next few years thanks to a revolutionary medical program in Mount Gambier.


For the first time in South Australia’s history, aspiring doctors can complete their entire medical degree in Mount Gambier through Flinders University’s new South Australia Rural Medical Program.


Sixty students, thirty of whom are in Mount Gambier, have begun their studies in the landmark program which is designed to address the critical shortage of doctors in regional, rural and remote areas.


The occasion was celebrated in Mount Gambier last week with a ceremony at the Flinders University Mount Gambier Campus.


In attendance were local dignitaries including Mount Gambier Mayor Lynette Martin, Wattle Range Mayor Des Noll, Minister for Regional Development Clare Scriven and South Australian Cross Border Commissioner Kelly-Anne Saffin.


There were also a number of local medical professionals in attendance including SA Health Executive Director Medical Services Doctor Sue Abhary, Limestone Coast Local Health Network Deputy Chair Lindy Cook and Executive Director Nursing and Midwifery Michelle De Wit and Rural Doctors Workforce Agency executive director Gretchen Scinta.


There was a Welcome to Country by Aunty Penny and speeches by Flinders University Executive Dean of the College of Medicine and Public Health Professor Johnathan Craig, Vice Chancellor Professor Colin Stirling and Hawkins Director Doctor Scott Milan.


South Australia Rural Medical Program first year student Aylin Erginbas moved from Adelaide to Mount Gambier to study in the ‘beginning to end’ program.


“It is above and beyond what I expected,” she said.


“I just did not think I was expecting this much support from not only the students but the academic team and the admin support staff.


“They’re there for us trying to fight for us as well to give us similar opportunities to metropolitan places, so it has been absolutely wonderful.”


Ms Erginbas said she wanted to join the program after working as a rehabilitation councillor for people on Centrelink JobSeeker payments following her undergraduate and honours degrees in Psychology.


“I got to see first-hand a lot of the challenges people living rurally faced including lack of access to healthcare and transport which really caused this massive gap in rural healthcare,” she said.


“I wanted to fill that gap; I wanted to allow people this basic human right to access health care.”


Students in the program will spend their first two years in either Mount Gambier or Renmark, with the option to continue to study at either location in their third and fourth years for clinical training.


They can also complete their clinical training across Flinders’ extensive rural network in the Adelaide Hills, Mallee, Fleurieu, Barossa Valley or Riverland.


The Federal Government has allocated 20 additional Commonwealth Support Places and $19.7m in funding from 2023-34, with a co-contribution from Flinders University to support 40 students in the program.


Flinders University Deputy Dean of Rural and Remote Health SA Professor Claire Drummond said prior to the new program students would complete their first two years at Bedford Park before some would be sent to Mount Gambier in their third year for clinical practice.


“One of the priorities of this program is that we do have to offer it to rural based students, so already we have students their family has lived rural in the past or they currently live rurally or they are in another state and they are rural and they have come back,” she said.


“We are already attracting students that know how good it is to be a rural practitioner, but it goes beyond that too, because I think there is quite a lot of students here that really can see they want to make a difference rurally.


“The demand was incredible, so we were actually oversubscribed and had to stop people from coming.


“We need GPs in our rural sites and this program is going to bolster that, so what we are hoping (is) because we are offering it in year one foundational years and our students do not need to go anywhere else … then they can do their internship and then their junior doctor and then they just stay.”


Ms Drummond said the course will see students make connections with local medical practitioners and community sooner, meaning they are more likely to stay in the South East.


“If we get our students immersed in community at year one level then they are more likely to keep going in rural sites because they have already got that great connection. The more immersion we can give the students, the more likely they are to stay,” she said.


“The Mount Gambier community are incredible; they have just pulled in our students.


“We are going to introduce them at year one level to this incredible community and our clinicians … so those connections start much, much earlier now whereas before we could not do that because the students were in Bedford Park.


“The other amazing thing we have done is we have actually recruited academics into the area, so we have never had academics in this course before because it has always been taught at Bedford Park, but now we are teaching face to face here.


“We are taking the same curriculum from Bedford Park, teaching it locally and just adding the rural flavour to it.”