AMA submission to the National Health Workforce Taskforce on the governance and organisation of clinical training.

The NHWT has released a discussion paper on options for managing clinical placements, managing funding arrangements for clinical training, and the role of the national health workforce agency that was announced by the Council of Australian Governments in November 2008.

The AMA’s submission to the NHWT is attached below. The AMA has argued that:

• future governance arrangements for clinical training must not undermine the role or independence of the Australian Medical Council (AMC), the postgraduate medical councils or the medical colleges,
• the existing roles of the AMC, the postgraduate medical councils, the medical colleges and the universities in clinical training should be maintained and supported, not taken over by, the national health workforce agency, and
• the national health workforce agency should focus on ensuring that funding arrangements adequately support universities to negotiate clinical placements at the local level.