A group of veteran doctors in private practice in southwestern Japan will launch a training program for young doctors currently working at general hospitals across the country.

The two-year program set to start next spring, organized by a doctors association in Masuda, Shimane Prefecture, is intended to provide young doctors with training opportunities that can be hard to arrange at hospitals in urban areas. For example, they will be taught primary-care services, a field where doctors in private practice have built up expertise.

In exchange for receiving training, doctors who take part in the program will be required to work as general practitioners at Masuda Medical Association Hospital, a local general hospital facing a chronic staff shortage.