Fed: Macklin slams new doctor training places

AAP General News (Australia)
02-10-2006
Fed: Macklin slams new doctor training places

CANBERRA, Feb 10 AAP - Prime Minister John Howard's decision to lift the cap on full-fee
paying medical places at universities will do nothing to fix the critical doctor shortage
facing Australia, Labor says.

Mr Howard said after today's Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting in Canberra
that there would be an increase from 10 to 25 per cent in the cap on the number of full-fee
paying places in university medical schools.

He said this would not replace future increases in HECS-funded places or be at the
expense of existing HECS-funded places.

These medical students will also have their student loan cap raised from $50,000 to
$80,000 - a move not yet made available to students of other courses.

But opposition education spokeswoman Jenny Macklin said all full-fee medical degrees
available in Australia's public universities now cost more than $100,000.

Three of the courses - at the University of NSW, Bond University and University of
Melbourne - cost more than $200,000.

"It is ridiculous to expect that someone with a $200,000 debt is going to work on an
average GP's salary in the country," Ms Macklin said.

"Doctors with fee debts bigger than mortgages will prefer high-pay specialisations
like plastic surgery."

Ms Macklin said more HECS places in medicine were the only solution to the nation's
severe doctor shortage.

"The Howard government's plan will exacerbate the existing biased distribution of graduate
doctors staying in metropolitan areas because full-fee places in medicine are not rural-bonded,"

she said.

"Full-fee students can not be required to work in a rural or regional area."

Federal Labor would oppose any moves to lift the cap on full-fee paying medical students,
Ms Macklin said.

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KEYWORD: COAG DOCTORS LEAD

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