Fed: Private medical school turns out first doctors

AAP General News (Australia)
12-11-2009
Fed: Private medical school turns out first doctors

By Tony Bartlett

GOLD COAST, Dec 11 AAP - The first batch of doctors to graduate from Australia's first
private medical school, Bond University on the Gold Coast, will start work next month
in 25 hospitals across four states.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Robert Stable says it's a milestone for Australia's health system.

Prof Stable said the foundation cohort from the medical school will help ease the nationwide
shortage of doctors when they take up internships from January.

"Bond's intense teaching schedule develops our students into world ready doctors in
under five years," he said.

The university said that's more than two years earlier than some other medical schools.

"These students will help address the shortage of doctors in the health system, which
has the challenge of dealing with an ageing population and the increase in chronic diseases
mainly due to lifestyle issues," Prof Stable said.

The 56 new doctors have been accepted for internships at hospitals including Royal
Brisbane and Womens, Princess Alexandra, and Mater Public in Brisbane, Royal Melbourne
and St Vincent's in Melbourne, Bankstown, Concord and Westmead in Sydney, and Royal Adelaide.

Because of the level of practical clinical work and small teacher to student ratios,
only one in seven applicants for the 2009 course were accepted through the university's
selection process.

Valedictorian Madeline Spooner said exposure to the real medical environment provided
students with great opportunities.

"We had a lot of one-on-one time with consultants, so by the time we actually got to
our clinical placements we were well-versed in communication and clinical reasoning skills,"

she said.

"There's certainly been a lot of interest in our class going through and I think the
medical fraternity will be impressed when we start internships next month."

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