Australian Medical Association

The AMA believes that Health Workforce Australia (HWA) can play a significant role in providing funding support to increase available resources for teaching and training prevocational doctors and vocational trainees.  The attached AMA paper Supporting prevocational and vocational training through Health Workforce Australia puts forward specific proposals regarding how this can be achieved.

The Australian Medical Education Study report – What makes for success in medical education? – endorses calls by the AMA for greater investment in medical education and training to produce a medical workforce capable of meeting the future health needs of a growing and ageing population.

The study undertook research between 2005 and 2007 involving all the major stakeholders, and included surveys of medical students, junior doctors, educators and employers.

AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce, said today that the report highlights the high international rating of an Australian medical education but advises that more needs to be done to properly fund and resource medical training in Australia.

The Confederation of Postgraduate Medical Education Councils (CPMEC) has prepared a discussion paper on the structure and content of the internship - the year of supervised clinical training completed by graduates of an Australian Medical Council-accredited medical school.

The AMA Council of Doctors-in-Training has written to CPMEC and given broad support to the discussion paper’s recommendations as they align with the AMA’s position on the duration of the intern year, its core terms and the role of placements in community settings.

An AMA national survey of junior doctors has exposed insufficient medical training resources and infrastructure in our public hospitals.

The AMA Junior Doctor Training, Education and Supervision Survey has collated the views of more than 900 junior doctors from across Australia on the quality of their medical training and the support they are receiving to become independent practitioners.

AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce, said today that medical training in public hospitals is being held together by dedicated senior doctors who are giving their time and skills to junior doctors without the support of State Governments.

“This is another poor report card on the performance of our public hospitals,” Dr Pesce said.

Findings of the AMA Junior Doctor Training, Education and Supervision Survey

AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce, said today that the AMA is encouraged by comments from Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, that the Government is keen to expand intern training places, including in general practice.

In a speech yesterday, the Minister said: “We hope to work with States through this agency [Health Workforce Australia] to expand intern training places, including into community settings like general practice.”

Dr Pesce said the AMA would work with the Government in any process to increase intern training places but there must be immediate action to meet impending strong demand for places.

MJA Media Release -  Trainee doctors need better supervision

New systems should be put in place to ensure medical trainees in teaching hospitals are adequately supervised, according to two articles published in the Medical Journal of Australia.

Dr Craig Hore, an intensive care specialist from Port Macquarie Base Hospital in NSW, and his co-authors write that the least experienced doctors in hospitals can be the first called upon to review sick patients after hours.

Dr Hore said inadequate clinical supervision might be a contributing factor to increased death rates of seriously ill patients at weekends.

“There is evidence that supervision has a positive effect on patient outcomes, and that lack of supervision is harmful for patients. Hence, inadequate training and supervision can be contributing factors to serious adverse events,” he said.

New strategies are needed to encourage general practitioners to teach medical students in their practices, according to a letter published in this year’s General Practice edition of the Medical Journal of Australia.

Dr Mary-Louise Dick, Senior Lecturer in the School of Medicine at the University of Queensland, and her co-authors interviewed 55 Brisbane-based GPs who teach third-year University of Queensland medical students.

The Federal Parliament's Senate Community Affairs Committee is conducting an Inquiry into the Health Workforce Australia Bill 2009 (the "Bill"). The Commonwealth agreed to establish a new health workforce agency at the November 2008 Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting and this Bill seeks to implement that commitment.

The AMA has provided a submission to the Senate Inquiry.

AMA Position Statement: Clinical support time for public hospital doctors - 2009

The AMA defines clinical support time as protected time for duties that are not directly related to individual patient care. Clinical support duties encompass most aspects of the teaching, continuing professional development, clinical governance, administration and research activities undertaken by clinicians in the public health sector.

The purpose of this position statement is to specify a minimum benchmark of remunerated time for clinical support duties for senior and junior clinicians. It includes a comprehensive list of the roles and responsibilities that constitute clinical support time to assist with developing job descriptions and work schedules.