Sixty junior doctors are joining the ranks at Sunshine Coast University Hospital, as a record number of medical interns hit the frontline across Queensland.
The Sunshine Coast Hospital and Health Service is also welcoming 10 new interns at Nambour, one at Maleny and one at Gympie.
It comes as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk this week announced the largest intake of junior doctors in Queensland history.
More than 800 junior doctors will be deployed across 20 Queensland facilities, with a further 200 paramedics and emergency medical dispatchers also added.
SCHHS acting executive director medical services Dr Alison Roper said the 72 new local interns would help strengthen the region’s health workforce.
“The Sunshine Coast Hospital and Health Service is proud to welcome the junior doctors, who are embarking on a challenging yet very exciting and rewarding period of their careers,” she said.
“It is a difficult time transitioning from student to doctor but we really support them through the process.”
Director of clinical training Dr Thi Aung said the junior doctors would use their first year to build good foundations to progress their career.
“They have to do emergency, medicine and surgery as mandatory, but they also have an elective term, so they are rotating, mainly in the Sunshine Coast University Hospital but also in Nambour, Maleny and Gympie as well,” she said.
“There are a lot of positives of getting those local medical students to be part of our internship group, and one of the greatest advantages is they know the system, they know the people and they already have some training in ieMR (integrated electronic medical records).”
Among the new interns are twins Katherine and Liisa Ups, who are expecting some initial confusion at having twin siblings working together.
“I think there will be a lot of, not issues, but times on the wards when there’s a bit of mix-up,” Lisa said.
“There’s actually a few rotations that we’re following each other on so people will think they get rid of us and then the next one will just join.”
While it is still early in their career, both women are also interested in pursuing careers as general practitioners.
“I think the end goal at this stage – but I’m sure it will change over the years – is to become a GP focusing on women’s health and paediatrics,” Katherine said.
Junior doctor Ben Thurgood has wanted to be a doctor since he was five.
“I’m on the Rural Generalist Pathway through Queensland Health and hopefully going to go through AHPRA (Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency) and become a GP a little but more rurally, just give back to the community a little but out that way,” he said.
Of the 72 junior doctors, 25 of them completed their doctor of medicine at the Sunshine Coast Health Institute through Griffith University.
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