WA medical students say they’re devastated to be excluded from the Federal Government’s latest expansion of paid practical placements, despite thousands of hours of compulsory training and rising living costs.

From July 2027, students in 10 additional allied health disciplines will become eligible for the Commonwealth Prac Payments.

They will join nursing, midwifery, teaching and social work students, who already receive $338.60 per week while on mandatory placement.

Curtin Guild Health Sciences representative Zobia Laarayb said the financial pressure faced by medical students made it hard to afford everyday expenses, including rent and groceries.

Fourth-year medical student Jayden Allsopp said the payment would allow him to live comfortably.

“We eat the same things day in, day out… I’ve got no other time to work, no other time to make money, and I don’t have enough to afford to move out of campus accommodation,” he said.

On top of student debt, Mr Allsopp said he paid about $100 for hepatitis boosters, $140 for uniforms, $100 annually for CPR training and $100 for mask-fit testing.

He said the demands of the degree made outside work almost impossible.  

Other students, whose identities the Curtin Medical Students’ Association withheld, described starker circumstances.

One student said they had $11 in their account after nine weeks of unpaid placement and exams.

Another final-year student said they were forced to work 30 hours a week to pay their bills, in addition to 40 hours of placement.

According to the Medical Schools Outcomes Database national annual report, the proportion of medical students relying on paid employment rose from 58.3 per cent in 2021 to 61.4 per cent in 2025.

The Federal Government has argued medicine does not have the same workforce shortages as nursing or allied health, because of strong student demand for limited places.

Mr Allsopp rejected that reasoning.

Mr Allsopp, who is from rural Western Australia, said students needed incentives to work in under-served areas, particularly in rural and remote medicine, instead of facing higher barriers to enter the degree.

About 28 per cent of medical school places are reserved for rural students, but Mr Allsopp believed the upfront costs risked pricing them out.

“There are people who will now not apply in the first place because they can’t afford to even get here for interviews,” he said.

Miss Laarayb said the ideal outcome would be to see paid placements extended across all health courses.

“Health students have signed up to help people, we haven’t signed up to struggle,” she said.

The Federal Government was contacted for comment.