The Coast deserves a medical school. The numbers are now embarrassing.
Half a million people, two major hospitals, and not a single accredited medical training campus north of Hornsby.
When I graduated in 2003, the Coast had 412 full-time GPs. Today, despite a population that is 28% larger, we have 387.
“We train doctors where we want them to stay. So we have stopped training them here.”
Federal funding for new medical school places has been announced for Bathurst, Tamworth and the Sunshine Coast in the last five years. The Central Coast — bigger than all three combined — was not on the list.
Newcastle and Notre Dame have both flagged interest in a Coast campus. It is now a question of will, not of demand.