Faculty of Health Sciences & Medicine

News Archive

Education Remedy for Ailing System

18 May 2005

FEDERAL Education Minister Brendan Nelson says the Gold Coast's two new medical schools will help cure Queensland's ailing health system.

Touring Bond University's four-storey, $20 million Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine building, which opened for classes on Monday, Dr Nelson yesterday said the Coast's hospitals and health service would also improve with the influx of medical students to the city.

He said that - with the system in crisis over scandals in Hervey Bay, Bundaberg and the Coast - the schools at Griffith and Bond unis were a timely remedy.

"While we welcome overseas-trained doctors to Australia, it's very important that we train our own as well," he said.

"The Federal Government is putting a lot of money into medical education, private and public, and what's important is that we look after these students once they are in the health system so that they stay."

Dr Nelson yesterday also toured Griffith University's new $36 million, seven-storey faculty, which is linked to Gold Coast Hospital, ahead of its official opening later this year.

Griffith and Bond will educate more than 150 doctors between them. Along with a faculty in Western Australia, they are the first medical schools to open in Australia in 25 years.

Joining some of Bond's first medical students in the classroom, Dr Nelson said he was pleased to learn that many were paying for their private education through the Government's Fee-Help loan.

He said student places at Griffith were also federally funded and it was important to fund education facilities on the Gold Coast.

"This is the fastest growing region in Australia and we need doctors to take care of its population," he said.

Prior to the official tour, Dr Nelson met senior educators at an Australian College of Educators breakfast.

He also visited Tallebudgera and Worongary state primary schools.

Ann Wason Moore, Gold Coast Bulletin

Back to 2005 News Archive