AMA launches medical training survey
The AMA has this week invited thousands of doctors in training nationwide to participate in a confidential online survey on the quality of the training, education and supervision they are receiving in hospitals across the country.
The AMA Junior Doctor Training, Education and Supervision Survey is the second of its type, with a similar survey in 2009 attracting more than 900 responses.
AMA President, Dr Steve Hambleton, said today that feedback from the medical training coalface was vital in shaping future medical training planning, funding, and resourcing.
Dr Hambleton said that the 2009 survey had produced a mixed report card on the state of medical training from the viewpoint of the young doctors.
“The 2009 survey showed that the obligation of hospitals to teach and train junior doctors was being outweighed by the demand for service delivery,” Dr Hambleton said.
“It highlighted the need for more resources to be devoted to medical training. This need is even greater today and into the immediate future as the number of medical students and graduates continues to grow.
“This is placing even more pressure on a stressed health system to support and maintain Australia’s international reputation for high quality medical training.
“Public hospitals are the bedrock of medical training in Australia. They need proper training facilities, adequate clinical supervision, appropriate channels for feedback, protected time for education and training, and support for research activities that are crucial to ensuring that junior doctors get the skills and experience they need to progress to full specialist qualification.
“The AMA is hoping for a strong response to our 2012 survey and we will feed the results back to the Government, the Health Department, and other responsible agencies.
“We welcome the news that the Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council (AHMAC) has commissioned an urgent investigation into the potential shortage of intern places for medical graduates,” Dr Hambleton said.
The recent Health Workforce 2025 report shows that Australia faces a shortage of intern training places for next year and, in 2016, there will be 3867 doctors who require a first year advanced specialist-training place, whereas the most recent data show that there are currently only 2817 positions available. Even factoring some growth in these places, Health Workforce 2025 is still projecting a shortage of 451 training positions.
The Survey is at http://ama.com.au/dit-training-survey-2012
19 June 2012
CONTACT: John Flannery 02 6270 5477 / 0419 494 761