{"id":709154,"date":"2026-07-24T17:05:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T17:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/709154\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T17:05:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T17:05:13","slug":"no-commonwealth-prac-payment-for-medical-students-despite-rural-doctor-shortage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/709154\/","title":{"rendered":"No Commonwealth Prac Payment for medical students despite rural doctor shortage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert Davies moved from Sydney to Armidale to study medicine and will need will need to complete thousands of unpaid practical placement hours to become a doctor.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old University of New England student said it was difficult to find a job while juggling a 38-hour weekly prac schedule.<\/p>\n

“It throws a lot of job opportunities out the window for supporting yourself,” he said.<\/p>\n

“[I’m] just looking to survive \u2026 I’m a bit worried and I’m sort of playing it by ear.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Trainee doctors are at risk of being unable to survive financially, a student and advocates say. (ABC News: Tristan Hooft)<\/p>\n

Earlier this week Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced an expansion of the Commonwealth Prac Payment program, which provides students payments of $338.60 a week.<\/p>\n

From July next year the scheme will include a number of courses in allied health fields, but medical students will not be covered.<\/p>\n

Mr Albanese told the ABC’s AM program that funding was being used to address skills shortages.<\/p>\n

“These are areas where we do have skill shortages and we want to encourage people to go into these professions,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There aren’t shortages of people who want to do medical degrees.”<\/p>\n

Australian Medical Students’ Association president Seniru Mudannayake said the decision sent a clear message, particularly to medical students from lower-income backgrounds.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Seniru Mudanna says medical schools should be accessible to people from all socio-economic backgrounds. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

“If you want to do healthcare and you don’t come from a wealthy family and you need financial support, medicine’s not for you,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The people applying are disproportionately from upper class and in the metropolitan areas, because they’re the ones who know they can survive 2,000 to 4,000 hours of unpaid placements.<\/p>\n

“We need doctors who represent their communities and this Commonwealth Prac Payment would have been the way to do that.”<\/p>\n

A ‘shame’ for rural communities<\/p>\n

Australian Medical Association president Danielle McMullen said the program should support students studying outside metropolitan centres.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Danielle McMullen says the payment could help to fill doctor shortages in rural areas. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

“We know there’s already a shortage of doctors in rural and regional areas,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We also know one of the best ways to fill that gap is to attract students from rural Australia who are most likely to practise there once they’re qualified.<\/p>\n

“For medical students to be left out of this scheme yet again is nonsensical and it puts a particular strain on rural and regional health.”<\/p>\n

Dr McMullen said medical degrees were among the most demanding and required students to complete about 2,000 hours of clinical placements.<\/p>\n

‘Scraping to survive’<\/p>\n

Mr Mudannayake said students from low-income backgrounds who accepted rural placements were faced with the additional cost of fuel, utilities, rent and food.<\/p>\n

“They’re paying out of pocket, they’re scraping to survive,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Medical schools are becoming less reflective of socio-economic diversity in this country.<\/p>\n

“We need doctors in low-income areas, we need doctors in First Nations areas and we need doctors in rural areas.”<\/p>\n

Tuition fees can also be costly.<\/p>\n

The full fees for a domestic undergraduate medical student studying full-time at the University of New England amount to almost $47,000 a year.<\/p>\n

Those eligible for a Commonwealth Supported Place, which offers subsidised tuition, will pay $50,000-60,000 in total for a four-to-six-year degree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Robert Davies moved from Sydney to Armidale to study medicine and will need will need to complete thousands…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[152652,234997,234998,102,2960,7613,234999,234996,56,54,55,179007],"class_list":["post-709154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-australian-medical-association","tag-australian-medical-students-association","tag-dr-danielle-mcmullen","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-new-south-wales","tag-placement-poverty","tag-prac-payment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-university-of-new-england"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}