NOTRE DAME UNIVERSITY medical students are furious with plans for a new medical school at Curtin University.

Last week prime minister Tony Abbott said the federal government would help fund the new school, fulfilling premier Colin Barnett’s promise to establish a third medical school in WA.

But students say there is already a glut of graduates unable to get the training they need to qualify to practice.

Brian Fernandes from the national medical students’ association says 84 junior doctors missed out on GP training positions last year and “800 missed out nationally”.

“A medical graduate does not equal a fully qualified doctor able to practise independently,” says Mez Nuthall, the president of NDA’s medical students association.

She says the government is choosing to “adopt policies which may win votes … but will leave Western Australia with an inefficient health system”.

Notre Dame University suggests a better alternative use of the federal and state funding would be to “invest in establishing training places” for graduate doctors.

by JACOB NAZROO