Seventy two medical interns have joined the Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District workforce with the graduates taking up rotating positions in the local public hospitals of the region.
The new doctors starting their internship are in a training program with networked hospitals in the local health district – at Katoomba and Nepean - and will have formal and on-the-job training.
Interns are medical graduates who have completed their medical degree and are required to complete a supervised year of practice to become independent practitioners.
They will work with, and learn from, the local health district’s experienced and highly skilled medical staff.
Junior doctors Tyler Jeffs and Owen Rabak are just two of the 72 JMOs (Junior Medical Officers) currently rotating in general medicine at Blue Mountains District ANZAC Memorial Hospital in Katoomba.
Dr Jeffs said he “jumped on the opportunity to live and work here”. “At the moment it's about getting a broad perspective on medicine, which I'm getting here at Blue Mountains”.
“In five years' time, hopefully I’m in a training program for surgery. Fingers crossed. It’s been fantastic.”
Dr Rabak said he chose a career in medicine after his dad was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma when he was 12. “Ever since then, healthcare was the career for me”. He loves the Mountains, because “nature is at your doorstep”.
“In terms of learning, [the] staff and people here have a lot of knowledge which I'm hoping to soak up [and] get a bit of an insight into the people in the Mountains and their lives.”
Blue Mountains MP Trish Doyle said she was “thrilled” these young medicos were being allocated to the region as a “much needed resource”.
“The more medical help we have in the Mountains the better. “I hope our newest recruits will have a long and rewarding career in the local health district.”
Some 1000 junior doctors have been hired state-wide. They will have a two-year contract to rotate between metropolitan, regional, and remote hospitals to ensure the diversity of their experience. They will also rotate across different specialities during the intern year, including surgery, medicine, and emergency medicine.
Minister for Health Ryan Park said he was “so pleased and grateful that more than 1000 junior medical officers have joined the country’s largest and one of the world’s best health systems”.
“These junior doctors undertake vital functions in our hospitals and health facilities. I welcome them to our health workforce and wish them the very best as they start on what will be an incredibly rewarding career in the NSW public health system,” Minister Park said.