A record cohort of medical graduates will commence their year-long internship in NSW hospitalstomorrow.

The NSW Government will fund 983 intern places in 2016 at a cost of $107 million – this is more intern positions than any other state or territory.

“I congratulate our medical graduates and share their excitement as they mark the official transition from student to young doctor,” Health Minister Jillian Skinner said.

NSW is the only state to offer two-year employment contracts to graduates commencing their internship. Over these two years, they rotate through a network including metropolitan, rural and regional hospitals. This exposes them to a range of clinical scenarios and supports them to complete their compulsory internship rotations in medicine, surgery and emergency. Having gained general registration in the first year, they continue their second year of networked training as residents.

NSW’s unique Rural Preferential Recruitment Scheme will enable 115 medical graduates to spend the majority of their first two years working in a rural setting.

The 2016 cohort of interns includes 19 Aboriginal medical graduates.

Graduates will commence internships in Sydney hospitals including: Auburn (10 positions), Balmain (3), Bankstown-Lidcombe and Camden & Campbelltown (46), Blacktown-Mount Druitt (42), Blue Mountains (3), Calvary Healthcare Sydney (2), Canterbury Hospital and Concord Repatriation General Hospital (42), Liverpool and Fairfield hospitals (51), Hornsby (35), Nepean (50) Hawkesbury District Health Service (6), Prince of Wales (36), Royal North Shore (44), Royal Prince Alfred (46), Ryde (11), St George (43), St Vincent’s (29), Sutherland (24), Westmead (70).

Rural and regional hospitals include: Albury (5), Armidale (3), Bathurst (5), Belmont (12), Bulli (4), Calvary Mater (22), Broken Hill (3), Coffs Harbour (19), Dubbo (12), Griffith (2), Gosford (35), John Hunter (51), Lismore (14), Maitland (6), Manning (6), Orange (17), Port Kembla (1), Port Macquarie (16), Royal Newcastle Centre (2), The Mater – HNE Mental Health (5), Shellharbour (4), Shoalhaven (7), Tamworth (18), Tweed Heads (18), Wagga Wagga (22), Wollongong (49) and Wyong (26).