Australian Medical Association

AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce, today said an extra 1400 medical intern places would be needed by 2013 to help ensure the looming surge of medical school graduates can become fully-trained doctors.

Dr Pesce said there would be around 3500 medical school graduates in 2012, compared to 2200 graduates at the end of 2008.

“Since 2004, the Federal Government has dramatically increased medical school places to help address workforce shortages,” Dr Pesce said.

“While there is no doubt Australia has a shortage of doctors and it was a good idea to fund extra medical school places, medical training does not stop when students graduate from university. There are currently only 2030 intern places for medical graduates available across the country and, beyond the intern year, a looming shortage of training positions right through to specialist training.

The consortium of eleven graduate medical schools is seeking the ACCC’s permission to continue its policies and practices for selecting applicants to graduate medical schools. These include the preference policy where applicants submit a single application to the Graduate Australian Medical Schools Admission Centre, and the one interview policy whereby applicants receive only one offer for an interview.

In its submission the AMA has said that, on balance, the public benefits from authorising the graduate medical school consortium to continue these polices and practices outweighs any potential drawbacks;  however, the AMA has noted that where a graduate medical school uses the interview process to look for certain qualities in an applicant, there is the potential for the applicant to be disadvantaged by the interview process in some circumstances. The AMA has encouraged the ACCC to address these issues in the authorisation process.

A guide for prospective medical students on the steps to becoming a doctor and the bonded medical places that are offered by the Australian Government.

AMA Position Statement: Health and Wellbeing of Medical Students and Practitioners - 2006

AMA Position Statement Employment of Medical Students in Hospitals - 2006

This is a joint statement by the Australian Medical Students Association (AMSA), National Rural Health Network (NRHN), Doctors in Rural and Remote Training Association (DIRRTA), AMA Council of Doctors-in-Training (AMACDT) and the General Practice Registrars' Association (GPRA) opposing the introduction of geographic restrictions on provider numbers.

AMA Position Statement: Medical Students: Immunisation and Blood Borne Viral Infections - 1997