Doctor Training A Public and Private Matter

"Australia is lucky to be looking forward to a flood of new medical graduates - we must better utilise general practice and the private sector to make sure all these graduates get the high quality medical training that Australian patients expect and deserve," Dr Capolingua said.

"For patients to receive the best medical care, they need to have access to doctors who have benefited from well-supervised training experiences where they see and treat patients with a wide range of medical conditions.

"We're pleased that Health Minister Nicola Roxon has acknowledged the importance of high-quality training for medical graduates."

AMA Doctors In Training spokesperson Dr Alex Markwell said by 2012 medical school graduate numbers will reach around 3,000 a year - double what they were a few years ago.

"If left unaddressed, such a massive increase over a relatively short period of time could overwhelm existing resources for medical training and we could end up with a large number of university medical school graduates who can't work as doctors," Dr Markwell said.

"Further investments in training in the public sector and new investment in other settings such as general practice and private hospitals are vital to ensure every graduate can complete his or her training."

Dr Capolingua said the AMA also agreed with Minister Roxon that Australia needed more GPs and more GP training positions.

The Government's GP training body, General Practice Education and Training, today announced that applications for the GP training program were well above the available number of funded training positions.

"It's wonderful that so many medical students hope to become GPs," Dr Capolingua said.

"This is an excellent opportunity for the Government to move quickly to lift the cap on GP training positions.

"This would deliver immediate results and help improve patients' access to GPs."