The Mackay Division of General Practice says it welcomes the announcement of a new $1.1 million medical training facility at the Mater Hospital.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced the project in Mackay yesterday as part of the Federal Government’s proposed health system shake-up.

The facility will be run by James Cook University, providing 98 medical, nursing, midwifery, pharmacy and physiotherapy student training places.

The chief executive of the division, Christian Grieves, says the project will benefit the whole region.

“Getting students to come in and work in an area makes it much more likely that in the long-term they will stay in that place or some place that’s very similar,” he said.

“If we’re getting them into Mackay it also increases the chances that they might go to places like Sarina, Proserpine, Cannonvale, [or] Moranbah.”

Mr Grieves says he understands that resources are limited.

“If we’re going to train people we need places for them to train but in terms of delivering, or opportunities to deliver more services then that’s either going to have to come out of the private sector or out of government and I guess we’re still waiting to see just how much of that’s going to come,” he said.