By Christopher Zinn Sydney

Medical students and doctors in Australia have angrily rejected plans by the federal government to bond newly funded medical school places to six years' service in a rural location. The 234 places at universities outside the state capitals will be offered to students who were turned down for existing medical places.

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The plan, to address a shortfall of at least 700 general practitioners in country areas, has been attacked by students who claim it is conscription and doctors who believe it is little better than blackmail.

The president of the Medical Students' Association, Nick Brown, said it was unfair to expect a commitment that will last years after students have graduated, adding there are better ways to attract doctors to rural areas.

"Boost up rural medical schools and rural clinical practice for the medical students to experience rural life and rural service first hand," he said. "Then let them make up their own mind, [without] having a big stick placed on them and without the threat of their place in medicine being taken away if they don't agree to these conditions."

The Australian Medical Association's president, Bill Glasson, a specialist who practices in rural Queensland, said the scheme is probably unconstitutional and certainly unworkable.

"If they want to introduce these positions, they certainly should be funded," he said, adding: "I think to ask for six years, and ask for it in a situation where they are completely unfunded is immoral, unjust, and we're not willing to accept it."

Students and doctors argue that the scheme should be more flexible and the bonding should last only three years instead of six. They claim it would produce a second class of resentful and unhappy doctors, with better performing students trying again the following year to secure a place with no restrictions.

But federal health minister Kay Patterson said taxpayers are entitled to a return on the A$42m (£17m; a42m) spent over four years to fund extra places at medical school.

"We have areas of workforce shortage in outer metropolitan and rural areas where we can't get doctors, and I think the Australian public deserve that they have doctors in areas where we need them," she said.

The president of the Australian Local Government Association, councillor Mike Montgomery, whose members will benefit from the plan, described the criticisms of the proposal as "rubbish."

"Medical students will accept these scholarships in full knowledge they will be required to serve in regional areas for six years. Where's the conscription in that?" he said. "These will be students who would not otherwise be able to fulfil their dreams of becoming a doctor. To be able to serve in an area of need should also be seen as a badge of honour, not something to be loathed, as the AMA seems to suggest."