Deal between governments will see more trainee doctors in regional SA

A deal between the State and Federal governments will see dozens more trainee doctors places open up across regional South Australia.

Transcript

00:00 gaining hands-on experience in regional hospitals.

00:06 The Premier in Port Lincoln presenting a plan to try and boost doctor numbers across regional

00:12 SA.

00:13 A program where SA Health becomes the employer of GPs for a five year period while they go

00:19 through their training and service provision in a local community.

00:24 Under the trial agreement with the Commonwealth, up to 60 extra GPs and registrar placements

00:30 will be available under the single employer model, which give them the same entitlements

00:36 as doctors in public hospitals.

00:38 Often these GPs in training will be in their late 20s, early 30s, so they'll be of childbearing

00:44 age.

00:45 Access to things like paid parental leave is a really significant incentive.

00:50 The scheme has successfully operated in the Riverland since 2022.

00:55 We currently have 30 trainees, that's 30 doctors that we wouldn't otherwise have in the region.

01:00 It will take a number of years to scale up, but we've got that hope now of a program that's

01:04 delivering results that we believe will now deliver results right across the state.

01:10 The deal was made public during the State Government's country cabinet trip to Lower

01:15 Eyre Peninsula, which included a community forum on Thursday.

01:19 Questions were raised about the Billy Lights Point desalination plant, which Peter Malinowska

01:25 says will go ahead.

01:27 Any failure to do so represented a material risk to this community running out of water.

01:33 Construction on the $313 million project is expected to start this year.

01:39 [BLANK_AUDIO]