Queensland Rural Medical Education (QRME) wishes, as its name suggests, to train doctors for rural and regional medical practice.
To achieve this end, QRME believes that the majority of training activities during terms should occur in practices located in rural and regional areas geographically, and imbued with the philosophies of independence, comprehensive care and resourcefulness seen in “typical” rural and regional practices and practitioners.
These philosophical issues are addressed within our practice and Supervisor selection and accreditation processes, which are comprehensinve. Geographical location of practices, while equally important, has some definition difficulties, as the RA classification does not always reflect a town’s “medical” rurality/regionality accurately. Some practices in RA 2-3 are within an hour by road of a major teaching hospital, are denied admitting rights for their practitioners to local hospitals and have ambulance/retrieval services available in times short enough to lead to an erosion of the qualities of independence that we wish to foster.
QRME believes that excellent training for both General Pathway and Rural Pathway Registrars can be provided in truly rural or regional practices and that by doing so the recruitment and retention rates for GPs in these areas will improve in the long term.
A recent large, Australia-wide survey of urban and rural GPs showed “longer rural postgraduate training is the most significant factor in increasing the likelihood of becoming a rural GP”.1
QRME is committed to the design and delivery of a GP Training Program of the highest quality which aligns with the requirements outlined by RACGP and ACRRM and the GPET Quality Assurance Accreditation Framework for Training Providers.
1Feedback document Rural Background Study, Wilkinson D, Beilby J, Laven G. 2002 in press.
Copyright 2008 QRME
Margaret Street, Toowoomba
Qld 4350