An urgent need to increase the number of doctors in Australia’s rural and remote areas is being addressed by Flinders University, which has launched South Australia’s first full rural medical degree.

The new four-year South Australia Rural Medical (SARM) program is enabling aspiring doctors to complete their entire medical degree in regional communities.

Sixty students have commenced their studies in this landmark program, with 30 in Mount Gambier and another 30 in Renmark.

These students will spend their first two years in either Mount Gambier or Renmark, before completing their clinical training across Flinders’ extensive rural network, including the Barossa, Riverland, Hills Mallee Fleurieu, and Greater Green Triangle.

Flinders University’s Associate Professor James Padley, Program Lead for the new medical degree, says this original approach represents a huge step forward by training medical students in regional areas, to ensure they remain in those areas as qualified physicians.

“It has been a long time coming, and this is such an important investment for the future of regional Australia,” says Associate Professor Padley. “Growing the rural medical workforce has to start with attracting more rural students to pursue medical degrees.

The development of this important new course has been made possible by the Federal Government allocating 20 Commonwealth Supported Places and $19.7 million in funding from 2023-24, with a co-contribution from Flinders University to support another 40 students in the program.

This marks a new high-point in Flinders University’s 25-year commitment to community-based rural medical education, which started with Emeritus Professor Paul Worley (PhD(Med) ’03), who pioneered rural clinical school training that took medical students to rural areas for the third year of their four-year degree.

Associate Professor Padley has seen these rural initiatives develop further through the Riverland Academy of Clinical Excellence (RACE) program, which has attracted first-year interns to the Riverland and retained them for their entire post-graduate training, to work within the local health network.

“This has added 40 doctors to rural communities, which has knock-on benefits because kids in rural schools can now see there are medical jobs that can keep them in their rural communities. Previously, if you wanted to be a rural doctor, you’d study and do initial training in the city, and move around to several locations before you finally got out to the country and started your GP training – and this was too piecemeal,” he says.“The new qualification is providing end-to-end training in rural locations that will grow the rural workforce, and that’s a significant win for the regions.

“The new program has also attracted seven new academics to Mount Gambier and the Riverland, to teach the fundamentals of medicine – including anatomy, biochemistry and genetics – and this will minimise screentime learning for medical students, because we know that face-to-face learning is so important.

“We also have Flinders experts at Bedford Park and in Darwin who are plugged into this program, so we have an expanded brains trust connecting the four city and rural locations, and we have the four different student learning groups all working together. It’s a huge achievement to have this in place for the first year of this new course.

“Having this increased medical knowledge and experience in rural areas is a benefit that will have knock-on effects for decades – and inspire the next generation.”

Flinders University Vice-Chancellor Professor Colin Stirling says the South Australia Rural Medical Program is a game-changer for rural health in South Australia.

“Flinders has been training doctors ready to meet the needs of South Australians for over 50 years and delivering health to Territorians for more than 25 years, including the Northern Territory Medical Program since 2011. This new initiative takes our commitment to the development of the medical workforce to the next level,” says Professor Stirling.

“We know that students who train in the regions are more likely to stay and practice there, and this program will help to build a sustainable rural health workforce for South Australia.”

First-year rural medical student Nick Carrodus relocated to Mount Gambier from Victoria so he could study in the new program, and says the opportunity has transformed what once seemed like an impossible dream.

“I always wanted to become a doctor, but it felt like a pipedream,” says Nick. “Now, I’m here with my family, studying medicine in Mount Gambier. I’m so grateful to be part of this journey and hope to give back to this community that has already given so much to me.”