AMA President says more to do to address workforce shortages in particular specialty areas
In his second address to the National Press Club as AMA President, Dr Michael Gannon urged governments and policy makers to provide enough prevocational and specialist training places for medical graduates and address workforce shortages in particular specialty areas.
“Next year we face a shortage of 569 first year advanced specialist training places. The bottleneck of doctors in training waiting to get on to a specialist training program is growing, and the projections suggest it will only get worse.
This has implications for the community’s access to services, and the career aspirations of our best and brightest.
We do not need more medical school places. The focus needs to be further downstream.”
“The evidence clearly shows that, if you select doctors from a rural background, or provide them with opportunities to train in rural areas, they are much more likely to work in a rural area.
We support Minister Gillespie and his idea for training hubs in the regions (but) we will keep arguing about the problems with bonding and for measures that will work."
Dr Gannon also outlined the health policy challenges facing Australia, and urged both sides of politics to adopt a bipartisan approach.
