Northern Tablelands MP Brendan Moylan has raised concerns about the expansion announced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to the Commonwealth Prac Payment program which he believes will exclude medical students.
From July next year the scheme, which provides student payments of $338.60 a week to students, will include a number of courses in allied health fields, but medical students will not be covered.
Mr Albanese told the ABC’s AM program that funding was being used to address skills shortages adding there aren’t shortages of people who want to do medical degrees
Mr Moylan says the decision is mind-blowing considering the current doctor shortage in rural and regional NSW adding this will affect students studying medicine in the bush.
He says medical students from a lower-income background will find it almost impossible to graduate as a doctor.
