The Murray Darling Medical School has raised concerns that current regional medical education strategies are failing to meet the needs of rural and regional communities.

This follows the release of report findings from the Medical Deans of Australia and New Zealand (MDANZ) which confirms that current metropolitan medical education programs are struggling to shift student career intentions towards working in rural and regional practice and deliver more doctors to rural and regional Australia.

A joint initiative of Charles Sturt University (CSU) and La Trobe University, the Murray Darling Medical School aims to provide a solution to the shortage of doctors in rural and regional New South Wales and Victoria.

The MDANZ Medical Schools Outcomes Database National Data Report 2015 found that 84.5 per cent of graduating domestic medical students reported a preference for working in a major city or metropolitan area, with only 11 per cent intending to work in a regional city or large town, and 4.6 per cent wanting to work in a small town or community.

Executive Director of the Murray Darling Medical School, Mr Mark Burdack, said, "Regionally-based universities like Charles Sturt University and La Trobe have consistently demonstrated that they are able to get 75 to 85 per cent of their health graduates to enter employment in rural and regional environments.

"Yet current policy for medical education provides millions of dollars in rural funding to metropolitan universities to deliver only 15.5 per cent of graduates expressing any interest in becoming rural doctors," he said.

Mr Burdack questioned suggestions that under-investment in the regional medical training pipeline is the primary reason for the poor results.

"We know that there has been a lack of investment in growing the regional medical training pipeline.  But even if we provided regional-based training for every one of the medical students who say they are interested in rural practice, and they all remained in rural areas for the long-term, it would still not solve our doctor shortage.

"We are unable to meet the medical service needs of the 32 per cent of Australians who live in rural and regional areas with only 15 per cent of medical graduates, particularly when we know only around half of these graduates will actually work in rural practice," he said.

The Murray Darling Medical School initiative, if approved, has committed to guaranteeing a minimum of 80 per cent of its students will come from a genuine rural, regional or Indigenous background and the entire curriculum will be taught in regional Victoria and New South Wales.