Establishment of the Murray Darling Medical Schools Network

Overview

The Murray-Darling Medical Schools Network (MDMSN) is an Australian Government initiative administered by the Department of Health. The program is part of the Stronger Rural Health – Teaching – train in the regions, stay in the regions measure announced in the 2018 Budget. The MDMSN aims to establish a series of rurally based medical school programs in the Murray-Darling region of New South Wales and Victoria. The end-to-end approach to rural training will improve the future distribution of the medical workforce and build on the Government’s existing investment in rural training through the Rural Health Multidisciplinary Training (RHMT) Program. The MDMSN will include: The University of New South Wales; The University of Sydney; Charles Sturt University in partnership with Western Sydney University; Monash University; and The University of Melbourne, in collaboration with La Trobe University. The MDMSN builds on the Government’s existing investment to build a strong rural medical workforce pipeline, which include increasing the number of specialist training posts, establishment of regional training hubs and providing opportunities for junior doctors to experience rural practice.