Member for Ku-ring-gai Alister Henskens SC has welcomed the recent commencement of 17 medical graduate interns at the Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Hospital.

Mr Henskens said that a record intake of almost 1,100 medical graduate interns started work in NSW public hospitals last month – more than any other state or territory in Australia.

“I want to extend a warm welcome to the class of 2023 and thank them for choosing a rewarding career in health. Each of these new starters will play an important role in keeping our community safe and healthy for years to come,” Mr Henskens said.

“These new medical graduate interns will also provide a major boost to their new colleagues – our dedicated health staff who have performed remarkably during a very challenging few years.”

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.

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.