Health minister Natasha Fyles organised Christmas cakes to be handed out to staff at the hospital today. 

The minister yesterday attended the graduation of 25 medical students from the NT Medical program.

They will now spend the next four years developing their skills as medical practitioners in the NT.

“Territorians deserve access to high quality services and training our own medical professionals is so important to delivering that,” Ms Fyles said. 

“The former Henderson Labor Government launched the program in 2011 as a major strategy to ‘grow our own’ medical workforce, trained to understand and address our unique health challenges within a culturally safe context.”

Minister Fyles said the government is continuing to improve the lives of Territorians.

“The Northern Territory Medical Program is a joint initiative of Flinders University, Charles Darwin University and the Northern Territory and Australian Governments," she said.

“The NT Government provides $2.58 million per year for the NTMP.

“For this investment, we support 104 medical students currently enrolled over the four year course, including the 25 new medical practitioners, whom we welcome into our workforce today.”

The NTMP has now graduated 74 doctors over the past four years, including eight Aboriginal doctors.

The retention of the first cohort of our ‘home-grown’ doctors in the NT workforce after completion of their return to service obligation is 75 per cent, which strengthens the safety and quality of health services across the board.

Meanwhile the Federal Government will support a further 14 NT Aboriginal health services staff members to undertake specialised leadership and management training, to bolster the indigenous health workforce.

 Indigenous Health minister Ken Wyatt said the new participants would bring the total number of people supported by the Indigenous Remote Service Delivery Traineeship program to 66.

“Customised training will help equip these outstanding nominees to become future leaders in the Aboriginal community controlled health sector,” Mr Wyatt said. 

“Building a strong indigenous health workforce is a key factor in closing the gap.

“Increasing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people representation at all levels of the health system, including administration, service delivery, policy, planning and research is crucial.”

The successful trainees will receive a nationally accredited Diploma of Leadership and Management. The new funding will be shared between four health services: