If the university is successful in gaining federal funding, the medical school will be established in Orange.

Bathurst will get a Primary Health Care Clinic which will allow students to gain clinical experience.

Research shows that students who train in the bush are more likely to practise here once they have graduated.

There will be an initial intake of 80 students. At least half of them must have a strong vocational interest in working in rural areas.

Speaking at yesterday’s launch were Vice Chancellor of Charles Sturt University Professor Ian Goulter, Chancellor Lawrie Willett AO, Emeritus Professor John Dwyer, CEO of the Greater Western Area Health Service Danny O’Connor, Member for Bathurst Gerard Martin, former member for Calare John Cobb, Mayor of Bathurst Paul Toole and Orange Mayor John Davis.

Professor Goulter said that over the past 20 years Charles Sturt University has pursued a singular mission – to identify and address the needs of rural industries, communities and labour markets through education and research.

Professor Goulter said 75 per cent of the university’s on-campus students now come from rural and regional areas and more than 75 per cent of these students work in rural and regional areas on graduation.

“There are widespread shortages of health professionals across many of Australia’s rural primary health care services,” Professor Goulter said.

“It is clear that domestically trained medical graduates are not moving to rural practice in the numbers necessary to meet current or future demand.”

Emeritus Professor John Dwyer is the executive consultant to the Charles Sturt University Medical School initiative.

Yesterday he said that people living outside the metropolitan areas have not had equal access to quality health services.

“There will be two million more Australians living in rural communities by 2025,” he said.

“It is only going to get worse and worse.

“As someone teaching medicine for more than four decades I have been passionate about changing the healthcare service to meet our needs,” Professor Dwyer said.

Bathurst’s Mayor Paul said the plan was something Bathurst Regional Council would support wholeheartedly because the medical school will be of real benefit to regional and rural areas.

“It doesn’t matter where we go, health is the number one issue everywhere,” Cr Toole said.

“Local government has been feeling the pressure for a long time.

“The doctors here in our region do a wonderful job

and this initiative should be promoted by everybody.”

Orange Mayor John Davis described the shortage of doctors in rural and regional Australia as “a hell of a challenge”.

“We have been treated as second-class citizens for many years,” Cr Davis said.

He said everyone in the central and far west must work together to make sure CSU’s school of medicine becomes a reality.