Ballarat Clinical School

Ballarat is Victoria's third largest city, located just over an hour by road or rail west of Melbourne and Geelong. The city houses two major health services:

• Grampians Health Ballarat, featuring acute and sub-acute sites; and
• St John of God (SJOG) private hospital, linked to the Grampians Health Ballarat acute site.

We are a small, personalised clinical school, allowing you to work closely with a team of healthcare professionals and the local community. The teaching faculty at Ballarat Clinical School includes more than 80 consultants and additional clinical educators, with specialist expertise covering all the core conditions and curriculum areas to facilitate your learning. You’ll also learn alongside medical students from University of Melbourne and Notre Dame, expanding your network and clinical learning experiences.

Key facts

• Grampians Health Ballarat has over 790 beds
• Grampians Health Ballarat is the main referral health service to a catchment population of 250,000 people across the Grampians region
• The Grampians Health Ballarat Emergency Department sees over 55,000 patients every year
• Grampians Health Ballarat welcomes over 1600 newborn babies every year
• The student to patient ratio in Ballarat is low
• Grampians Health Ballarat clinical streams include acute care, sub-acute care, residential care, community care, psychiatric services and rehabilitation services

What are the expected contact hours?

You can expect to be on site around 20 to 30 hours per week.

Are there further training opportunities after completing fourth year?

There are 32 intern positions at Grampians Health Ballarat and a variety of PGY2 positions. There are close links to Deakin’s Western Victoria Regional Training Hub, with surgical, medical and GP training pathways in place. This means you can live and complete training across the key specialties without moving from the region. Specialty training programs that can be accessed at Grampians Health Ballarat include paediatrics, women’s, anaesthetics, ICU and others.

Where is Ballarat Clinical School?

Ballarat Clinical School is based at Grampians Health Ballarat, which is centrally located in Drummond Street, North Ballarat. Teaching occurs across the acute, sub-acute and community settings.

What's it like living in Ballarat?

Ballarat offers the best of regional living, with all the perks of living in a big city like Melbourne, with cafes, galleries, shopping, restaurants, cultural attractions and more. The Ballarat Council Event page gives you a taste of what’s on offer or check out the Visit Ballarat Instagram page. Another great source of lifestyle information for Ballarat and surrounding regions is the quarterly Ballarat lifestyle magazine ‘Uncover’. Travel between Ballarat and Melbourne is around one hour, making weekends in Melbourne easy and affordable, as well as surf coast regional towns, such as Geelong and Torquay.

Can I access student accommodation?

There is no Deakin University accommodation in Ballarat, but accommodation can easily be found through the general rental market, with plenty of affordable options, often close to the CBD and hospital.

If you're interested in a career in rural medicine, discover what it's like to practice as a doctor in regional Victoria from those in many different stages of their career. Get a better understanding of what training and practicing rural medicine is like from the experts and find out where a career in regional and rural health can take you.

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