Three new interns welcomed to the Far West Local Health District

The medical graduate interns – Dr Venod Somoo, Dr Vien Truong and Dr James Park – will rotate through Medical, Surgical and Emergency Departments in Broken Hill Health Service and Concord Hospital throughout the year.

Interns are medical graduates who have completed their medical degree and are required to complete a supervised year of practice in order to become independent practitioners.

The new doctors starting their internship will be entering a training program with networked hospitals throughout the state, providing formal and on the job training.

They receive two-year contracts to rotate between metropolitan, regional and rural hospitals to ensure the diversity of their experience. They also rotate across different specialties during the intern year, including surgery, medicine and emergency medicine.

Dr Venod Somoo was recruited to Far West LHD through the Rural Preferential Recruitment Scheme, in which interns choose to undertake the majority of their training in rural hospitals, thus demonstrating an early commitment to rural and non-metropolitan regions.

Director of Prevocational Education and Training (DPET) Dr Aravind Suppiah welcomed the new junior doctors to the Far West and Broken Hill Health Service.

“It is very pleasing to host our three interns at Broken Hill Health Service,” Dr Suppiah said.

“We will be supporting them as they work through their rural placement and helping them gain confidence and skills in a diverse range of clinical presentations.”

The NSW Government is investing a record $33 billion in health as part of the 2022 - 23 NSW Budget. The NSW Government has also announced the largest workforce boost in the nation's history with a $4.5 billion investment over four years for 10,148 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff to hospitals and health services across NSW.