Flinders University welcomes the appointment of Emeritus Professor Paul Worley to the inaugural role of National Rural Health Commissioner, a pivotal position aimed at strengthening the training pathway for rural health practitioners across Australia.

Acting Vice-Chancellor Professor Robert Saint says that Professor Worley is ideally suited to leading Australia’s rural health workforce through its next phase phase of transformation and growth, having  established a legacy at Flinders University in the form of a world-class rural health education program.

“Professor Worley has long been a powerful advocate for rural medical training in remote Australia and has devoted his career to addressing the mal-distribution of doctors in rural and under-served areas,” says Professor Saint.

“He led the Flinders University Rural Clinical School for six years and was Dean of Flinders’ Medical School for more than a decade.

“During that time he helped trail-blaze a rural teaching model for medical students that has since been replicated in other Australian universities and numerous countries around the world.

“Importantly, he was instrumental in setting up the ground-breaking Flinders Parallel Rural Community Curriculum (PRCC), which commenced in 1997 in the Riverland region of South Australia.

“The PRCC enabled third-year medical students to undertake their entire clinical year in rural family practice, basing their learning around long-term professional relationships with patients and their clinicians in small rural communities.

“This helped pave the way for the Rural Clinical Schools program of the Australian Government which saw significant investment in the development of rural medical training infrastructure, including new educational facilities and student accommodation.

“As a result of Professor Worley’s work there has been a revolution in medical education and rural medical workforce policy that has given rise to a new generation of doctors who are specialists in rural and remote medicine.

“He helped put Flinders at the forefront of this revolution and we congratulate him on his exciting new appointment,” Professor Saint says.

In addition to his leadership roles at Flinders, Professor Worley is a past President of the Rural Doctors Association of South Australia and a previous national Vice President of the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine.

He currently serves on the Council of the Australian Medical Association (South Australia) and is a Board Director of the Adelaide Primary Health Network.

Professor Worley is also a practising rural general practitioner.