Training doctors through regional teaching health service networks may help deliver sustainable high quality health care closer to home for rural Australians
The principle of universal health coverage is passionately espoused by the global community and linked to developing the right workforce, with the right skills, in the right place.1,2 But Australia has already achieved this through Medicare and state‐funded hospitals which can deliver higher than average life expectancy and minimise maternal and neonatal morbidity. Right? Wrong!
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Paul Worley is the National Rural Health Commissioner, and Belinda O'Sullivan and Rose Ellis are employed in the Office of the National Rural Health Commissioner. The National Rural Health Commissioner is an independent statutory officer. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not represent an official position of the Commonwealth Department of Health or the Australian Government.