Commitment needed to ensure sufficient intern places in NSW
The NSW Government must commit to providing all current Australian university-trained medical students with access to intern training places in public hospitals, the AMA (NSW) said today.
“This is not a new issue - NSW is severely lagging in its efforts to provide enough training places in public hospitals to match the output from medical schools and satisfy community needs. The NSW Government must ensure sufficient, quality training places for all current Australian university-trained medical students,” AMA (NSW) President, Dr Michael Steiner said.
“Public hospitals are suffering from a shortage of doctors, but increases in medical student numbers will not translate to more doctors on the ground unless access to medical training is provided.
“Overseas students who come to study and learn in Australia help to overcome the doctor shortage by staying to complete their training here – some make significant sacrifices to do so. It is heart-breaking for students to come so far only to be told they cannot complete their training to become doctors and be sent home. Medical students do most of their training in hospitals, not at university - internships should be considered as part of the continuum of training. It is very difficult for overseas students to undertake this vital aspect of training in overseas hospitals.
“Anecdotal evidence from a number of overseas students suggests that some universities are misleading potential students by failing to disclose the problems with postgraduate training places. We need to ensure these students can access high quality training positions so they can go on to graduate as fully-trained doctors.
“Additional funding is needed from all levels of government to maintain and ensure our high standards of medical training and patient care are not diluted, including funding for an adequate number of senior doctors to provide the training.
“State Government funding into the provision of intern places is a great investment in the health of the community - not doing so undermines the considerable time and effort that many senior clinicians put into undergraduate training.
“The Commonwealth Government must now direct Health Workforce Australia to undertake rigorous workforce planning to help States and Territories calculate the requirements for training places in individual medical specialty areas.
Media Contacts: Tanzeem Parkar 0419 402 955 / Anil Lambert 0432 828 006
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