AMA hosting Rural Medical Training Summit

The AMA is hosting the Rural Medical Training Summit in Canberra today. The summit brings together key decision makers, stakeholders, academics, policymakers, and experts to discuss how to create pathways to support medical training in rural and regional areas.

The summit, led by the AMA’s Council of Doctors in Training and Council of Rural Doctors, will showcase models currently being used by the medical profession to help create rural and regional speciality training opportunities and support the health and wellbeing of doctors working and training in rural and regional areas.

The summit will also explore how international medical graduates can be best supported to undertake specialty training in rural Australia. The expertise of participants will inform and guide future AMA policy and advocacy for rural specialist medical training.

The AMA is also launching the AMA plan for improving access to rural general practice today. The plan outlines a clear strategy for improving access to primary healthcare for rural communities and addressing general practitioner shortages in rural areas.

Key recommendations from the plan include the establishment of a National Rural Health and Workforce Strategy and the development of sustainable training pathway for doctors in rural areas.

Data on from the Nous Group shows the health-spend gap between urban and the 7 million Australians who live in rural areas was $6.55 billion, or $848.02 per capita per year. In addition, the recent report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) shows potentially avoidable deaths and hospitalisations were two to three times higher in remote and very remote areas compared with major cities. Without timely access to primary care from GPs, the burden of disease and pressure within hospitals systems will continue to increase.

A report on the summit will made available in the coming weeks.