Healthcare across the North West region has been boosted in 2022 with five new intern doctors and 20 graduate program nurses and midwives joining the team at North West Hospital and Health Service (NWHHS).

NWHHS Chief Executive Craig Carey said it was encouraging to see good numbers of interns and graduates applying to live and work in the region despite the ongoing pandemic.

“These new intern doctors and graduate nurses will be joining our team and learning their roles in the midst of the pandemic and I would like to acknowledge the incredibly important role they will play in our communities,” Mr Carey said.

Mr Carey said the 2022 cohort would reap the rewards that choosing NWHHS would bring.

“NWHHS has built a solid reputation for being a challenging and rewarding training facility, and they will learn from some very experienced and resilient leaders in their field throughout their time in the region.”

Mr Carey said the interns would support the community as the management of the COVID pandemic continued.

“As a community we have faced huge challenges with COVID, demonstrating how essential it is to ensure the local health system remains strong,” Mr Carey said.

Of the five medical interns, four have been studying at James Cook University in Townsville and one will relocate from Monash University in Melbourne. All five are on the Rural Generalist Pathway, which supports junior medical officers with targeted training and development to become a Rural Generalist and gives them the opportunity to explore a wide variety of clinical training and develop the advanced skill set required to support the health needs of rural communities.

Of the 20 nurse graduates, the cohort are all Queenslanders and will be deployed to various departments at the Mount Isa Hospital, as well as Cloncurry Hospital, Normanton Hospital, and the COVID-19 workforce.