The Northern Territory’s first locally-run medical school is set open in the next few years, after receiving almost $25 million in federal funding to get it off the ground.
The $24.5 million in funding will grant 40 Commonwealth-supported student places to the program, a collaboration between the NT’s only university Charles Darwin University (CDU) and Menzies School of Health Research.
The only medical training in the territory at the moment is a rural health-focused program run by South Australia’s Flinders University, in partnership with CDU.
Thevini Abeywardana is likely to be one of the first students to be enrolled in the new course.
The current CDU biomedical science student has wanted to become a doctor since childhood, but until now hasn’t been unable to study medicine without leaving the NT.
She missed out on a spot in the Flinders-run NT program, and was offered a spot at a Tasmanian university but ultimately turned it down to stay close to family.
“I’m very excited [about] being able to stay here,” she said.
“[Students who move to study] tell me every day how much they miss staying here, and often they have to come back and forth too.
“I think it’s an amazing opportunity for students to be able to study medicine in their hometown.”
CDU School of Medicine Foundation Dean Dianne Stephens said the program’s focus would be improving health outcomes among Indigenous Australians and in regional, remote and rural areas, with first preference given to NT residents.
“We are going to be the medical school of choice for studying medicine for First Nations people,” she said.
“While 30 per cent of our population are First Nations people, in our health system they are over-represented because of the health outcomes that are poorer than the rest of Australia.”
Dr Stephens said the school was confident of securing annual funding for 40 students a year, with a vision of growing to 120 students within the next five years — a figure she cited as necessary to fill the current gaps in the NT’s under-stress health system.
“We are desperate for medical workforce [staff] across the board. It’s in the hospitals, it’s in the Aboriginal-controlled community sector, and it’s in general practice,” she said.
“There is a medical workforce deficit across the country, and it is amplified and much worse in the Northern Territory.
CDU acting vice-chancellor Reuben Bolt said the new medical school was designed to address the specific health needs of the NT.
“We know the low stats around the morbidity and the mortality rates, the issues around unemployment, the issues around high incarceration rates, whether there’s high levels of cardiovascular disease or diabetes,” he said.
“This is a real game changer for the Northern Territory, for us to be able to develop a program based that’s going to be based on the needs of the territory.”
While the medical school is most likely to open in 2026, Dr Stephens said there were conversations underway for the program to potentially start a year earlier in 2025.