The latest report from the Medical Deans of Australia and New Zealand shows that less than 18 per cent of final-year medical students intend to work in rural or regional practice after graduation.

Mr Mark Burdack, Executive Director of the Murray Darling Medical School, a joint initiative between Charles Sturt University (CSU) and La Trobe University, called this a poor result and said, "There is a need for better information to be provided to rural communities about the performance of medical schools in addressing rural doctor shortages".

Mr Burdack also questioned the value of national data about where medical students intend to work and has called for better information in order for rural communities to plan for the future.

"It is not clear that 'intention' data gives rural communities the best means to predict whether or not rural doctor shortages will be overcome," Mr Burdack said.

"We know that at present fewer than 10 per cent of graduates from typical metropolitan medical schools actually move into rural practice each year, so good intentions don't always translate into practice. 

"We also know that some medical students say that they intend to work rurally, but do not do so.

Mr Burdack pointed to the example of bonded medical students who say they will work as a doctor in an area of shortage for a period of time when they complete their training. But a recent government review of the Bonded Medical Places (BMP) scheme found that some of these students may actually be using the scheme as 'low cost' way to get a medical degree, and then proceed to 'buy-out' their bond once fully qualified.

"Rural communities rely on particular medical schools operating in their region to deliver graduates to address local doctor shortages. What people in western NSW and northern Victoria need to know is how many graduates from medical schools operating in their region will work locally after graduation?"

Mr Burdack said, "National data also conceals potentially significant differences in performance between universities.

"For example, we know that more than 80 per cent of James Cook University's (JCU) graduates intend to work rurally – a significantly greater proportion than the 17.8 per cent nationally. We can hypothesise that if some medical schools are doing significantly better than the national average, others must be doing worse. But which ones?

"In Queensland, data is published showing the number of medical graduates that are actually working in rural and regional areas by the University from which they graduated," he said. "This allows regions to see where graduates actually work, rather than where they think they might work in the future. 

"It also allows communities to easily see which universities are doing a good job of addressing the rural doctor shortage."

In Mr Burdack's opinion, national data is a poor substitute for regional insight.

"While national data tells us that the number of doctors in smaller rural towns has gone up, when you look by region it shows that most of this growth has been in coastal areas, not inland," he said.

"Could it be that the majority of medical students that say they intend to work rurally are actually planning to work on the coast? With the present data, we don't know."

Mr Burdack said, "Rural career intention data is routinely promoted as an indicator that things will get better in our communities. But what we really need to know is where medical graduates are actually working, and which universities are performing at delivering medical professionals for regional communities, so we can make informed local decisions about the solutions that will solve the rural doctor shortage."