Record intern intake at Queensland Hospitals

A record 740 graduates in Medicine will start work as interns in Queensland hospitals this week as part of the Palaszczuk Government’s moves to provide better frontline services in Queensland hospitals.

Acting Minister for Health and Ambulance Services Dr Anthony Lynham today visited Prince Charles Hospital at Chermside in his electorate of Stafford to personally welcome the 25 new interns at the hospital, an extra 5 interns over last year.

“These people face a challenging year learning from the ground up what actually goes on in hospitals and the role that they are expected to play in it,” Dr Lynham said.

“This increase in the number of interns reflects the Palaszczuk Government’s focus on putting more people on the frontline providing services to the public.”

Last year there were 705 interns who started work in Queensland hospitals, while this year’s intake of 740 represents a 5 per cent rise on the number who started last year.

The biggest increase is on the Sunshine Coast where 54 interns started yesterday, well up from the 42 who started last year, mainly because health services on the coast are gearing up for the opening later this year of the Sunshine Coast University Hospital.

Other hospitals where there are substantively more interns are Prince Charles, Cairns and Toowoomba, while Mt Isa and Redlands, where there has been limited training in the past, will become full venues for the first time.

Dr Lynham said that the interns had started work yesterday and spend their first week in an orientation program which included familiarising themselves with the hospital, its services and clinical practice and procedures.

“The new doctors will spend their first week getting to know their way around the hospital and meeting senior staff. Once they have found their feet they will begin their first rotation in a variety of specialities including obstetrics, emergency, acute medical and surgery.”

Another element of this year’s intake is that 91 of the interns will be trained in the Rural Generalist Pathway, which was set up by the Labor Government in 2006 to provide a constant flow of new doctors for rural Queensland.

The Queensland Rural Generalist Pathway, hosted by the Darling Downs Hospital and Health Service, aims to provide medical graduates with a supported training pathway to a career in rural medicine; and rural and remote communities with a skilled medical workforce.

The pathway is now the main source of rural medical workforce in Queensland, and this year will have more than double the number of Rural Generalist Intern Training positions than in 2013.

This pathway provides doctors with valuable additional procedural skills in areas such as obstetrics, emergency medicine and anaesthetics, Indigenous health, paediatrics and mental health and allows them to go on and specialise in rural and remote general practice.

11 of the rural generalists will be at Mackay while a further 10 will be at Cairns.  

ENDS                          

MEDIA CONTACT:        Andrew Fraser                  0428 690 679 (Minister’s office)

                                  Christine Atkinson             0475 838 053 (Prince Charles Hospital)