The five are undergoing a week’s orientation before starting work on January 23 and Prof Sandford said the hospital’s they were the second batch of the in-house internship program which started in 2016.

“Two of our five inaugural in-house interns from last year – doctors Erica West and Brendan Graham – have chosen to stay with Mount Isa Hospital this year and continue their careers,’’ he said.

This year’s five in-house interns include two Indigenous identified graduates with one of the two, Patricia Murphy from James Cook University, no stranger to Mount Isa as she lived here from 2003 to 2010 so she could be a carer for her mother.

“That experience helped inspire her to embark upon a career in medicine,” Prof Sandford said.

“Patricia also is notable in that she embarked upon her medical studies as a mature age student.’’

Prof Sandford said Mount Isa Hospital was very keen to encourage more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to pursue a career in medicine and to return here as doctors.

“As such, we are very pleased to welcome Patricia and also Gary Sit, along with our other three graduates Gemma Wilkinson, Duy Le and Stephen Cremonini,’’ he said.

Dr Murphy studied at James Cook University while two others took their medical degree at the University of Queensland, one from the University of Melbourne and one from the University of Western Australia.

Prof Sandford said last year was a landmark year for Mount Isa Hospital.

“The introduction of our own in-house intern program marked the transition of Mount Isa Hospital into a teaching hospital in its own right,’’ he said.

“Previously, Mount Isa was only able to act as a host hospital for interns from other teaching hospitals seeking to undertake just a 10-week rotation each at a rural facility like ours.

“But now we can host our own in-house interns for the full year, as well as rotational interns from elsewhere.’’

The intern training year comprising five 10-week terms, during which interns are required to complete placements in five different clinical areas.

This satisfies the requirements of the Medical Board of Australia for provisional registration before receiving general medical registration.

A fully accredited intern teaching hospital must be able to provide three compulsory placements in the areas of Medicine, Surgery and Accident and Emergency, as well as two elective placements in an area of the intern’s choice.

Previously, Mount Isa Hospital was unable to provide all three compulsory placements, along with a suitable range of elective options.

“It took a lot of work to get to the stage last year where we could offer a full in-house internship program and join the ranks of fully accredited medical training facilities,’’ Prof Sandford said.

Prof. Sandford said Dr Murphy would be doing her first 10-week term in the obstetrics and gynaecology department.

Doctors Sit and Wilkinson will be doing their first term in the Surgical Ward and Medical Wards respectively, Dr Le will be in the Emergency Department and Dr Cremonini in Paediatrics.

Prof. Sandford said three of this year’s five in-house interns also would be pursuing Queensland Health’s very popular Rural Generalist Pathway training program.

“This pathway provides doctors with valuable additional procedural skills in areas such as obstetrics, emergency medicine and anaesthetics, Indigenous health, paediatrics and mental health and allows them to go on and specialise in rural and remote general practice,’’ he said.

“I am confident our second group of five interns will be very pre-disposed towards continuing their medical careers in country Queensland once they finish their internships here.’’