Speeches
Saturday, 19 October 2024
Flinders University 50 Years of Medicine Gala
Thank you Petiola and Michael for your welcome to country.
It is a pleasure for Rod and me to join you for this gala dinner and to support the endeavours of Flinders University in our community.
Lieutenant Governor Dr Harry Harris, a wonderful support to Government House in his role, is also an accomplished medical specialist and a graduate of the Flinders Medical School.
Earlier this year I was pleased to speak at the launch of Flinders’ new city campus, a stone’s throw from where we sit.
The tower gives Flinders staff and students a prominent CBD presence and no doubt an excellent view of the Government House gardens!
We look forward to welcoming the Flinders community to our public events.
Friends,
This evening we gather to celebrate half a century of medicine at Flinders University.
Fifty years, as Professor Craig wrote in his invitation to me, “of delivering medical training to generations of doctors who are caring for patients, advancing research, transforming healthcare and educating the next cohort of medical professions.”
Tonight, we pay tribute to those educators, researchers, clinicians, administration staff, student mentors and others who have dedicated themselves to building a respected medical program, which now has more than 700 students.
I thank them all for their energy, passion, leadership and commitment to advancing medical care and inspiring each generation of graduates.
No doubt other speakers this evening will describe these 50 years in more depth, but I too wish to highlight some firsts that Flinders has achieved:
The Flinders Medical Centre was the nation’s first purpose-built academic medical centre integrated with a medical school;
In 1996 the university was the first in Australia to offer a four-year graduate-entry Doctor of Medicine program, as an alternative to the traditional undergraduate courses;
In 2011 it was the first Australian university to offer a full medical program in a rural and remote setting in the Northern Territory;
And in 2025, the first cohort of South Australian students to undertake their medical degrees entirely outside of metropolitan Adelaide will commence study.
As Governor I have travelled extensively in regional and remote South Australia, and I have witnessed first-hand the challenges residents face in accessing health care.
I thank Flinders sincerely for its commitment to serving these communities through regional training programs, which is producing real results:
Thirty percent of rural South Australian students go on to join the rural GP workforce, which is three times the national average, and ten percent of graduates in the Northern Territory are of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background.
Congratulations Flinders on reaching 50 years of your medical program.
I wish the university all the best as it educates future doctors and produces world-class research, positively contributing to the lives of countless South Australians.