Nearly 50 new nurses will receive a scholarship to work in general practices in some of the country's higher need communities, the Government has announced.
"There has been a lot of interest in the scholarships from both the nurse graduates and general practices. As a result, the original plan for 30 scholarships has been increased to 48," Health Minister Tony Ryall said.
In September Mr Ryall announced the government would invest an extra $16 million over four years to support Very Low Cost Access (VLCA) practices. This included a one-off $1.5 million scholarship fund for 30 graduate nurses.
"We want even more new graduate nurses working in our higher need communities and are increasing the scholarship fund to $2.4 million," he said.
"Over half of the graduate nurses have already been appointed and recruitment is well underway for the other positions."
