Funding Announcement Welcome

THE Federal Government has provided RVTS with the best Christmas present of all - a commitment of $18.4 million in ongoing funding.
The announcement by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Health Minister Nicola Roxon last week was part of a $150 million package to boost GP training across the nation.
For RVTS this means ongoing assurance for existing registrars and those contemplating joining us next year and into the future.
It will also boost our annual intake from 15 a year to 22 from 2011.
RVTS will, in time, train up to almost 90 doctors a year with our mix of phone hook-ups, the internet and workshops.
CEO Pat Giddings told the media the funding announcement gave the program certainty and was recognition of its success.
"It is a long way from when we started the original pilot in the front room of my house in Bright back in 2000" he said.
"What we are doing is keeping the doctors in the community while they are training; in some ways it's a retention strategy for the Government.
"The communities have access to GPs that they may not have had, and the doctors are meeting their vocational training requirements."
Dr Giddings admitted that while RVTS had held discussions with DoHA for some time re extension of funding, the timing of the announcement caught him by surprise.