Picture perfect partnership to support healthcare delivery in the Far North
CQUniversity Australia and Queensland X-Ray have announced a plan to join forces to alleviate the critical radiography workforce shortages in the Far North.
The partnership, which will make a Bachelor of Medical Imaging available in Cairns and Far North Queensland for the first time, aims to provide a long-term solution to shortages, by educating and training local radiographers who will go on to work in the region after graduation.
Introducing the program now and ensuring its long-term success hinges on $27.5 million Federal funding, and a bipartisan commitment at the Federal election to expand CQUniversity’s new Cairns campus.
Planned construction of an additional wing would incorporate dedicated medical imaging teaching spaces.
CQUniversity’s Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Nick Klomp said that the University was committed to working with industries within its regional footprint to respond to community need and reduce workforce shortages.
“CQUniversity has a very strong track record when it comes to responding to challenges facing our communities and industries.
“We know that medical imaging services in Far North Queensland are under significant pressure due to workforce shortages.
“Provided we secure a $27.5M commitment from an incoming government to increase the capacity of the new campus, we will be able to launch the foundation years of the Bachelor of Medical Imaging in Cairns from 2026 through a partnership with Queensland X-Ray,” Professor Klomp said.
“Our most recent engagement with industry has made it clear - workforce shortages in medical imaging are impacting healthcare delivery across the region.
“That’s why we don’t want to wait for the new campus to be constructed to bring our Bachelor of Medical Imaging to Cairns - we plan to introduce it in 2026 through our partnership with Queensland X-Ray. But to do that, we need a firm $27.5 million commitment in the upcoming election to ensure the delivery of the course in the longer term is viable and sustainable and that we will be secure in knowing that we can deliver the space and facilities the course needs,” he said.
Transcript
[Music]
We're here today in the impressive facilities of Queensland X-Ray and we're delighted to be putting the final touches on a partnership between CQUniversity and Queensland X-Ray where we can work together to start producing graduates in medical imaging radiographers we know how desperately short we are of radiographers in the regions more generally across Australia and particularly here in Cairns and Far North Queensland the beauty of working with Queensland X-Ray is that this partnership is allowing us to start the course next year 2026 intake won't that be so exciting for the current year 12s now and other people mature age students that are thinking about having a career in medical imaging now we can only do this if we know that we have the uh health and engineering wing that we're asking both sides of politics to support the development the further development of the CQUniversity Cairns campus that's important if we wait to build that and then start training our students it will take a long long time but with Queensland X-Ray partnership with CQUniversity we can start next year well uh strengthening our partnerships with uh with education facilities is incredibly important to us um we value education highly within our staff group but also we recognise the need for um promoting the education of young radiographers and imaging staff um to continue our profession but also to um make it available for for young students in the regions if we can offer these types of courses um in the regional areas it does um allow those um regional students a better opportunity at accessing that that education and um hopefully that flows through to um a better attention rate for for regional staff it's quite exciting for us it's the the first time we've had an opportunity to partner with a tertiary education um provider such as this um basically we want to help facilitate um the students um ability to learn um there's a lot of hard work um being done on by Central Queensland University um to get this course up and going and if we can provide a small amount of help um to make sure this course is viable and and we can um begin it as soon as possible um to obviously address the staffing deficit we find in the regions um that that's the most important thing to us and as far as the partnership goes I think there's a lot of exciting opportunities in the future as well um for both our staff and and the region the next nearest place you can study medical imaging is Mackay and then after that further south and all the way down to Southeast Queensland the problem is when people leave the area they so often don't come back so businesses and communities more generally health services and and even Queensland X-Ray need to know that they can have local people being trained end up graduating locally they're more likely to stay locally typically we uh have cohorts of 24 students studying medical imaging we will start with at least 18 in the first year so it may well be competitive and because it's going to be an exciting development for Cairns uh and we'll grow that to 24 in future years and the beauty of this partnership is we can start next year [Music]
Professor Klomp also highlighted that CQUniversity has already taken steps to enhance the future of healthcare training in the region, adding Physiotherapy to its Cairns offerings last year, with Occupational Therapy and Exercise Physiology to follow as part of the new campus development.
Jamie Byrnes, Chief Operating Officer from Queensland X-Ray echoed the importance of growing a homegrown medical imaging workforce, stating that regional areas face unique challenges in attracting and retaining healthcare professionals.
“Healthcare workforce shortages exist across the Country, but regional areas are impacted the most by these shortages.
“We place a huge amount of effort into recruiting and attracting staff however many staff who relocate to the region often don’t stay long-term because they do not have established family and friendship networks in the community.
“By growing our own skilled professionals, we are more likely to retain qualified staff in the region because they will already have established networks and a strong connection to the region.
“Radiography services are critical within our healthcare system and it is really important for patients to be able to access reliable and urgent care when they need it. Delays in delivering these services have the real potential to negatively impact patient health outcomes.
“This partnership with CQUniversity is a crucial step toward developing a pipeline of highly skilled medical imaging professionals in the Far North.
“We fully support CQUniversity’s call for a $27.5 million Federal Government investment to make this a reality,” said Mr Byrnes.
CQUniversity currently offers its medical imaging course at its Mackay campus.
The four-year course equips students with skills and knowledge to launch a rewarding career in diagnostic imaging and be responsible for providing safe and accurate imaging examinations in a wide range of clinical environments using a variety of imaging modalities and techniques so that appropriate management and treatment of patients and clients can proceed.
For more information on the course offering please visit the Bachelor of Medical Imaging course page on the CQUniversity website.
