AMA welcomes big investment in medical training

AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce, said today 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.

“This is a very strong investment in medical training and an acknowledgement by the Government of the vital role that GPs will play in meeting the future health needs of the Australian population,” Dr Pesce said.

“People value their GP and today’s announcement means that the community will get better access to GP services with a bigger GP workforce in the years to come.

“Today’s announcement means that Australia will have more doctors in the system to care for an ageing population with more chronic and complex health problems.

“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.

The increased number of training places is consistent with AMA policy provided to the Government in the AMA’s Priority Investment Plan for Australia’s Health System.

15 March 2010

CONTACT:    John Flannery        02 6270 5477 / 0419 494 761