Medical degrees that bind thousands of doctors to rural practice: an antiquated policy?
Doctor groups are concerned the program is not achieving its goals for rural communities.
It was over 20 years ago that students first received the offer of Commonwealth-supported medical school places if they pledged to move to rural Australia.
The Bonded Medical Program has evolved since, most recently in 2020, when the so-called rural Return of Service Obligation (RoSO) expanded from one year to three years for new participants.
In 2025, 4107 of the 19,598 medical school enrolments were bonded medical places.
However, with low RoSO completion rates, is the million-dollar program addressing workforce shortages at all?
