Would more country students studying medicine help solve rural doctor shortage?

Hooper believes one of best ways to get more doctors into the bush is to simply get more bush students into medicine.

Born in Carroll on the Liverpool Plains, Jones grew up in Sydney and always wanted to return to the country, but encountered the kind of institutional inertia that keeps doctors in cities.

She was nearly denied her request to be transferred to Tamworth after finishing her training.

Hooper agrees, saying that young doctors are afraid of being pushed to the back of the hiring queue if they work in the bush.

Federal Labor has pledged a $135m trial of urgent care clinics across the country to ease the pressure on hospitals, if elected.

A project led by Services for Australian Remote and Regional Allied Health called Attract, Connect, Stay aims to develop a framework for small towns to get doctors into the bush and keep them there. It is being piloted in the northern NSW regions of Glen Innes and Narrabri.

Cosgrave has based the program on the community-led doctor-retention models that saw success in Marathon, Canada in the 1990s.

According to Cosgrave, Attract, Connect, Stay focuses on social integration, addressing challenges doctors may find outside the workplace: housing, schools, and lifestyle, especially for family members.

The idea is to have a network of locals who can ease the doctors into rural life, she says.

Despite the challenges, some city doctors do make the leap. Dr Caitlin Frede was born and raised in the Sutherland Shire and did a rotation at Tamworth hospital under Dr Jones. While there, she met her partner, Dr Russell Hooper. She is now in practice in the region.