AMA WELCOMES BIG INVESTMENT IN MEDICAL TRAINING

AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce, said that the AMA welcomes the Government’s significant investment in medical training with the announcement of big increases in the number of medical training places across the board.

The Government has announced there will be 1200 general practice training places by 2014, 975 Pre-vocational General Practice Placements Program (PGPPP) places by 2013, and 900 specialist training positions in private, community and rural settings by 2014.

Dr Pesce said the Government has recognised the important role of general practice with a sharp increase in GP training positions and more than doubling the number of PGPPP places.

“We will have around 3000 domestic medical school graduates by 2012 and this package will substantially increase the number of training places that are available for these graduates.

“The Commonwealth has, since 2004, significantly increased its investment in medical training by more than doubling medical student numbers and creating additional GP and private sector specialist training positions.

“This package shows that the Commonwealth is committed to doing even more to ensure that our future medical graduates can get the training they need - but the Commonwealth can't do it all on its own.

“The States and Territories must now play their part and fund more prevocational and specialist training positions in their public hospitals to make sure that we can give all future graduates a training position,” Dr Pesce said.

This announcement follows intensive lobbying by the AMA, including a recent meeting with Minister Roxon, detailed in following articles.

AMA PRESIDENT AND AMACDT CHAIR MEET WITH MINISTER ROXON

The AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce, and the AMACDT Chair, Dr Andrew Perry met with Minister for Health and Ageing, Nicola Roxon, to discuss clinical training issues on 10 March.  Dr Perry said the meeting was a good opportunity to highlight the need to bolster funding and resources for clinical training across the spectrum of medical education. Both Dr Pesce and Dr Perry took the opportunity to talk about the proposals outlined in the AMA paper Supporting prevocational and vocational training through Health Workforce Australia.

The meeting also provided an opportunity to seek more information from the Minister about the Government’s proposed National Health and Hospitals network and the specific proposal for the Commonwealth government to fund 60% of recurrent expenditure on training undertaken in public hospitals.

AMACDT - TRAINEE FORUM STRENGTHENS TRAINEE VOICE

The fourth annual AMA Council of Doctors-in Training Trainee Forum was hosted by AMA Victoria on 13 February 2010.  Trainee representatives from almost all specialties attended along with representation from the New Zealand Doctors-in-Training Committee and the Australian Medical Students Association.  It was clear listening to the voices around the table that trainee representation in the specialist colleges has gone from strength to strength and this is achieving some positive outcomes for trainees.  There is still room for improvement in some areas, and improved communication between trainee representative groups and colleges is one of the best ways to ensure that headway is made.

One of the main outcomes of the Forum was the agreement that more needs to be done to support and expand prevocational and vocational training.  The Forum unanimously passed a resolution that calls on the Federal Government to implement the proposals put forward in the AMA paper Supporting prevocational and vocational training through Health Workforce Australia.  Health Workforce Australia (HWA) is a newly formed organisation funded jointly by states/territories and the Commonwealth. 

The AMA proposal includes funding for dedicated teaching and training time for senior clinicians, the development of innovative training for interns, professional development programs to enhance the teaching capacity of junior doctors, and prevocational training positions in community settings

Dr Andrew Gosbell, Director of Education at the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, attended the Trainee Forum to provide an update on the developments in Psychiatry training and also to respond to trainee concerns including proposed changes to the training program and examination results.  The discussion highlighted the great benefit of good communication between colleges and trainee representative groups, particularly in facilitating the timely resolution of trainee issues.

MEDICAL TRAINING REVIEW PANEL

The Government has accepted the major recommendations arising from the Review of the Medical Training Review Panel (MTRP), which means that the MTRP will have a broader terms of reference in future, allowing it to monitor, and report on, the number of available training places across the whole spectrum of medical education. This is consistent with the AMA submission to the review.

This is great news for medical students and graduates.  With the burgeoning numbers passing through the medical education system, the role of the MTRP is an essential one.  The AMA Council of Doctors-in-Training has three representatives on the MTRP who will continue to push for access to high quality training positions for doctors-in-training.

‘LEADING CHANGE’ –  AMA LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT DAY

The AMA organised, in conjunction with the AMACDT Trainee Forum, a Leadership Development Day in Melbourne on 12 February 2010, titled ‘Leading Change.’  Participants heard from a variety of insightful and motivating speakers on topics including ‘How to Effectively Chair a Meeting’; ‘Medicine, Change and Politics’; ‘Medicine and Governance’; and ‘What to Say to Get What You Want’.  The day was a great success with excellent feedback from participants. 

The AMA thanks the major sponsor, Health Super and the event sponsor, Avant for their generous support of 'Leading Change'.

AMA SURVEYING SPECIALIST TRAINEES

The AMA will be surveying specialist trainees on their experiences with their training programs so that the medical colleges can be given independent feedback about their training programs.  The AMA Specialist Trainee Survey is a confidential online survey that will ask trainees about various aspects of their training, including the course curriculum; college assessment and examination processes; the flexibility of the training program; and training costs.  The questionnaire was developed by the AMA Council of Doctors-in-Training, with input from college trainee representative groups and the colleges.  The anonymous, ten-minute survey will run from 9 April to 2 May 2010.  The survey link will be emailed out to AMA members and non-members in early April, and all specialist trainees will be encouraged to participate. 

Long-awaited report highlights quality training key to preparing students for internship and beyond

The Government recently released the long-awaited report on ‘What makes for success in medical education?’  The report was based on research that was undertaken between 2005 and 2007 that included surveys of medical students, junior doctors, educators and employers.  The report demonstrates that while medical education in Australia continues to be rated exceptionally well by international standards, there are problems caused by a lack of funding, growing medical student numbers, fewer clinical teachers and the enormous pressure on hospitals to focus on service delivery at the expense of teaching.   Read more

Seeking your views on competency-based training

Competency-based training continues to be heavily debated topic.  Variations of CBT are increasingly common at university, prevocational and vocational stages of medical training.  The AMACDT wants to hear from doctors-in-training about CBT.   What are your views on CBT?  Do you believe it improved your training?  Do you have any concerns about CBT?  Please email your comments to ditnetwork@ama.com.au

AMACDT on Facebook and Twitter

The AMACDT has an AMA Doctors-in-Training Network on Facebook. This site has photos, links and posts and regular updates on the council’s activities. Click here to go our Facebook site. You can also follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/amacdt.

MJA Job Share

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