Mr WALSH (Murray Plains) (18:59:50): (876) My adjournment issue tonight is for the Minister for Education, and it concerns Rochester Secondary College, which is obviously in Rochester. I have been approached by a number of parents in Rochester who would like to see Rochester Secondary College become part of the Doctors in Secondary Schools program. If I look at the list of the schools in northern Victoria that are in that program, there are not any schools in the Campaspe shire that the Murray PHN actually services. The people of Rochester have raised this with me. Rochester is a town, like a lot of towns, where the challenge is to have enough doctors. They believe that the town and particularly the school students would benefit from having a doctor one day a week at their school as part of the Doctors in Secondary Schools program. It is something that is needed for the particular town of Rochester. As I understand it, the school-based GP bulk bills the consultations through Medicare, so there is not an issue of cost for the families that are involved but there is the opportunity for students to have the benefit of that doctor service while they are at school if they have got issues that they need to see a doctor about. So I would urge the Minister for Education to look favourably at having Rochester Secondary College actually included in the doctors in schools program in the future.
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