Doctors across the south-west are "run off their feet", says Deakin Western Victoria regional training hub director associate professor Barry Morphett.

There's concerns that there won't be enough specialists to care for the ageing population.

"We have about 25 students who graduate from our clinical school each year, and two to three will take up a career in the region, the rest go back to Melbourne and we never see them again," associate professor Morphett said.

He's part of a renewed push to recruit and retain medical students in the region.

"What we're trying to do is to have a rural preferential pathway for students in our region to go into medicine, which means more students from the region will be admitted to a medicine course," he said.

"We might have one or two local students, but we want to get that to 15 to 20 which means they stay in the region, they're close to home and stay on do specialty training so they stay in the country.

"There's a shortage across the board in everything really.

"That's why we need to get this in place, and the issue is that it's not something that's going to happen next year, it's going to take around five years to start seeing the products of our work.

"It's important we start early to get this in place so we're got pathways for students in the region."

Latest census data paints a picture of an ageing population, with 31.5 per cent of people in Warrnambool aged over 55.

It's higher in Moyne Shire, where 33.8 per cent are over 55, and 37.6 per cent in Corangamite.

Deakin is launching a new system next year where students in Western Victoria get preference to get into medicine in Warrnambool.

READ MORE: Brain gain as Warrnambool medical school seeks local student doctors

"The current setup is you complete undergrad, then you sit the GAMSAT exam, get an interview and about 4000 peopl apply to Deakin medicine," professor Morphett said.

"What we're about to introduce is all people from our region who have done their degree, they will go to a separate pathway where 30 spots are quarantined and you will only be competing against other people in our region. So you're competing against say, 50, rather than 4000.

"You're almost certain to get in."

Warrnambool general practitioner Dr Kate Stotskaia moved from New South Wales to study rural medicine at Deakin.

"I moved from Sydney for a four-year course," she explained. "I was in Colac in third year, I'd never been to Warrnambool in my life when I was placed here for fourth year.

"As soon as I got here I fell in love with the place and stayed on as a doctor for my first and second year out."

That was in 2012 and Dr Stotskaia has been in Warrnambool ever since.

She is now a teacher at the Deakin Medical School and is passionate about fostering a new generation of medical professionals in south-west Victoria.

When she studied there were only two specialty options in the region to choose from.

"It's so great to see Barry pushing to have so many more specialties being trained locally, not just GP and emergency, which was the only thing on offer when I finished," she said.

"To see a list of 21 specialties is just amazing, I think the local students are so lucky these days to have Barry."

She shares concern for the future of healthcare in the region.

"At the moment I'm taking time off from my clinical GP work because as GPs we are flat out and run off our feet, and the government doesn't want to do much about that, especially at the moment with the vaccine rollout.

"It's very tough and was sad that the government ignored GPs during the initial phase of the vaccine rollout where we weren't seen as frontline workers.

"It would be wonderful to see more local students stay here, we don't just need GPs we need lots of different specialties.

"As the population ages, so do the specialists. There's lots of specialists nearing retirement age and lots of staff at Deakin who would like to retire in the next few years.

"It's going to be significant, that's why we need a plan.

"Funding is what we really need to keep the program going. Without that the program doesn't have support."

Tomorrow marks the launch of the Regional Medical Training website - regionalmedicaltraining.com.au - a one-stop shop for investigating medical specialty training placements and study options across the southern regional Australia region.

At the website's virtual launch at the AMA Victoria's 2021 Medical Careers Expo on April 28, regional specialists will talk about local pathways in surgery, intensive care, psychiatry, paediatrics, general practice, rural generalism, adult internal medicine and anaesthetics and the benefits available to trainees working in rural and regional towns.

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