A PLAN has been released to lure doctors to regional and remote areas, but Warwick Hospital says it has had initiatives in place to draw students to the area for years.

Warwick Hospital will welcome twenty junior doctors on a rotating roster as part of a program to enable medical students to gain experience in regional areas this year.

At least twenty medical students will also do stints in the Rose City.

The Australian Medical Association announced the five-point plan earlier this month to encourage more doctors to work in rural and remote locations to improve patient access to care.

The AMA stated at least one-third of all new medical students should be from rural backgrounds and more medical students should do at least one year of training in a rural area to draw graduates to regional Australia.

AMA president Dr Michael Gannon said about seven million Australians live in regional, rural and remote areas and often have more difficulty accessing health services than those in the city.

"They often have to travel long distances for care, and rural hospital closures and downgrades are seriously affecting the future delivery of health care in rural areas,” Dr Gannon said.

"For example, more than 50 per cent of small rural maternity units have been closed in the past two decades.”

Mr Gannon said the country did not need more medical schools or places, when in fact projections suggested Australia was heading toward an oversupply of doctors.

"Targeted initiatives to increase the size of the rural medical, nursing, and allied health workforce are what is required,” he said.

"There has been a considerable increase in the number of medical graduates in recent years, but more than three-quarters of locally trained graduates live in capital cities.

"International medical graduates make up more than 40 per cent of the rural medical workforce and while they do excellent work, we must reduce this reliance and build a more sustainable system.”

Darling Downs Hospital and Health Service Rural Division director of medical services Dan Manahan said the division welcomed the five-point plan, saying Warwick hospital had been providing opportunities for student placements for more than 20 years.

"There are currently more than five doctors doing vocational training at Warwick Hospital and local general practices,” he said.

"These doctors have a mix of skills including emergency medicine, obstetrics, anaesthetics, surgery, internal medicine, mental health and child health.

"This is a comprehensive service list, which is good for the consumers at Warwick Hospital.”

Mr Manahan said Warwick was a pilot site for the Rural Longlook program, which saw students travel to rural placements for a year of training since 2010.

"Warwick was also one of the first sites in Queensland to receive intern placements in 2008,” he said.

Mr Manahan said there was currently an opportunity to recruit more staff and the division was in the process of employing additional personnel.

The five points outlined in the AMA plan outline the following areas for attention:

- Encourage students from rural areas to enrol in medical school, and provide medical students with opportunities for positive and continuing exposure to regional/rural medical training;

- Provide a dedicated and quality training pathway with the right skill mix to ensure doctors are adequately trained to work in rural areas;

- Provide a rewarding and sustainable work environment with adequate facilities, professional support and education, and flexible work arrangements, including locum relief;

- Provide family support that includes spousal opportunities/employment, educational opportunities for children's education, subsidies for housing/relocation and/or tax relief; and

- Provide financial incentives to ensure competitive remuneration.

Dr Gannon said doctors who spend time in a rural area or come from a rural area were more likely to take up long-term practice in a rural location.

"Selecting a greater proportion of medical students with a rural background, and giving medical students and graduates an early taste of rural practice, can have a profound effect on medical workforce distribution,” he said.

"Our proposals to lift both the targeted intake of rural medical students and the proportion of medical students required to undertake at least one year of clinical training in a rural area from 25percent to 33percent are built on this approach.”