Medical win

The first of Griffith University’s Darling Downs medical training and accommodation facilities opened in Warwick last week, featuring a 60-chair seminar room, 24-bed hostel and a six-chair dental clinic.
Built by Griffith University, in collaboration with the Darling Downs Hospital and Health Service, the Warwick facility is the first of three to open in the next few months, with similar facilities under construction in Stanthorpe and Kingaroy.
The $4.39 million Warwick Clinical Education Facility was opened officially by Queensland Health Minister Lawrence Springborg.
Mr Springborg said Griffith University received a total of $8.3 million from the Australian Government’s Increased Clinical Training Capacity scheme to construct a network of facilities that would support growth in clinical placements.
“The funding awarded will be used to construct clinical education facilities at Warwick, Kingaroy and Stanthorpe hospitals, as well as minor works to support clinical placement capacity across the region,” Mr Springborg said.
He is enormously supportive of the Darling Downs Hospital and Health Service/Griffith University partnership and believes great outcomes will result.
“Having access to this student population will allow Queensland Health to actively recruit future staff and should provide a significant boost to the future health workforce on the Downs,” Mr Springborg said.
“This project will expand opportunities for health students to undertake clinical education in Warwick and we hope the students will choose to stay working in the Darling Downs region when their studies are completed.
Griffith Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ian O’Connor, said the partnership to develop the new facilities was a strong beginning for a greater connection between the university and the Darling Downs region.
“Griffith University is really proud of the relationship we’re developing in the Darling Downs region. It is creating genuine bricks and mortar results, which will be of enormous benefit to the towns and our academics and students,” he said.
“We want people in the Darling Downs to think of Griffith as their university and, through our partnerships with Queensland Rural Medical Education (QRME) and the Darling Downs Hospital and Health Service, we’re intent on growing the facilities and our identity in the region.”
Griffith Health Pro Vice Chancellor, Professor Allan Cripps, was looking forward to an increase in training and clinical supervision capacity as well as broadening the scope for research into rural health concerns.
“Through providing education and clinical placement opportunities in the Darling Downs, it is anticipated that regional and rural students, including those from local Indigenous communities, find health education more accessible,”