00:00 Breathing life into a struggling health system.
00:05 Commence compressions.
00:07 A fresh cohort of students at Flinders University's Darwin campus
00:12 embarking on a four-year medicine degree in the hopes of one day working in the Territory.
00:17 The purpose of this program is to try and ensure that we're training local people
00:23 and giving local Northern Territorians opportunities to study medicine here.
00:27 For Ebony Hill, the program is helping her fulfil a lifelong ambition.
00:32 Just growing up as an Indigenous woman in the Northern Territory,
00:35 I witnessed first-hand the plight of health amongst my mob,
00:39 so I was inspired by that to pursue a career in health.
00:45 She's one of 40 students accepted into the Northern Territory Medicine program this year,
00:50 a record since it first began in 2011.
00:53 95% of our student entry is local Northern Territorian.
00:58 The university also reporting record growth in Indigenous student numbers.
01:03 You just have that cultural awareness and cultural knowledge,
01:06 so I just think it's really important.
01:08 While attracting people into the medical profession is key,
01:12 keeping them here is an even greater challenge.
01:15 By providing opportunities for local students,
01:18 the program hoped to tackle retention, particularly in remote communities.
01:22 The work we require is to try and develop postgraduate training hubs
01:26 in the specialties that are located locally,
01:31 and so people stay up here, they get the mortgage and the partner locally,
01:35 which encourages them to actually stay in the Territory.
01:37 First-year student Sophie Lestrange relocated to the NT three years ago.
01:42 With a house and partner in Darwin, she plans to stay and specialise in general practice.
01:47 I myself never wanted to live in a big city,
01:50 so a lot of the medical schools across Australia are in big cities,
01:54 which makes it a big barrier for a lot of people.
01:57 A barrier Flinders University wants to see dismantled in years to come.
02:02 Does it do wheezing?
02:04 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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