Go back to the 1950s, and the progress through to established practice was very different — both personally and professionally — from the way it is now.

Sir Robert Menzies introduced Commonwealth Scholarships in 1951.

The year 12 results needed to get into medicine were higher than those required to be awarded a scholarship. There was even a means-tested living allowance available to scholarship holders that assisted families who could not afford to have a child in their late teens and early 20s not contributing to the family’s purse.

That made medical school intakes much more egalitarian — but not completely.