This is the beginning of a five-year partnership between Forbes Medical Centre and the University of Wollongong (UOW) and the first time the medical centre has hosted students for a whole year.

Dr Neale Somes, who will be supervising the students, said the year-long placement will greatly benefit both the students and Forbes.

“We’ve had students here for 15 years but they’ve come for a week or two or three at the most,” he said.

“These students will be here for a year which is 25 per cent of their undergraduate degree.

“Forbes will truly shape these doctors forever and this experience will have a genuine impact on the type of doctor they are.”

The students, Rebecca Devitt from Mudgee and Hayley Dyke from Gerringong, are excited to be in Forbes.

Ms Devitt said she has always wanted to practise medicine rurally.

“When you’re in the city practises you’re a lot further down the line but here everyone is so keen to involve us and we get to have a variety of experiences,” she said.

Ms Dyke said she already feels a part of the Forbes community.

“I love it here, Forbes has got a real community sense,” she said.

“I only got here on Friday and I feel like I’m part of it already.”

During their time in Forbes, Ms Devitt and Ms Dyke will complete two days in general practice, one day in the emergency setting in the hospital, one day in the community and the fifth day will be educational with a video conference to other students in Orange.

Dr Somes said there are many advantages to completing training in the country.

“I think in the city medicine is very specialised but here they are exposed to general medicine, from the cradle to the grave, from obstetrics to palliative care and everything in between,” he said.

“Medicine is losing generalists which is a shame – if someone has chest pains and they go to a cardiologist, they’ll find something wrong with their heart, if someone has chest pains and they go to an oncologist, they’ll start looking for cancer… but if you want the diagnosis you need to see a generalist.

“To preserve the role of a generalist, you need to expose students to it.”

Dr Somes is hopeful that after spending a year in Forbes, the UOW students will be more likely to return to here to work.

“I’m optimistic it [training doctors for a year] means more doctors will come back to the country,” he said.

“If you went to school in the country and studied to be a doctor, you’re more likely to come back to the country.”

“Thirty per cent of Australians live outside cities, so we should be training 30 per cent of doctors in the country. UOW has signed a five year contract with Forbes Medical Centre and agreed to send two students a year for five years.

“The uni is making a commitment to the medical centre,” Dr Somes said.

This commitment involves UOW investing in equipment and facilities at the medical centre, which Dr Somes hopes would eventually lead to Forbes becoming a research facility.

“Our goal is to generate research out of this medical centre and the uni will be able to facilitate that research,” he said.

“That would mean better services in the country…it’d be a real big thing for Forbes.”