Graduating Doctors Will Leave Queensland If Jobs Aren't Available - Australian Medical Students' Association

Main Category: Medical Students / Training
Article Date: 06 May 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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The Australian Medical Students' Association (AMSA) has welcomed the federal government's $100 million investment into medical student training in Queensland, but has warned that the funding will be wasted if jobs aren't made available for graduating doctors.

"We welcome this long overdue funding injection by the federal government into medical education in Queensland", AMSA President Michael Bonning said.

"The onus is now on the Queensland Government to ensure that every student who graduates from medical school in Queensland will get an intern position in a Queensland Hospital", he said.

Research shows the number of medical students graduating each year in Queensland has risen sharply from under 300 in 2003 to over 750 predicted graduates in 2012.

In response to a question on notice on 13 February this year, the Queensland Minister for Health, Mr. Stephen Robertson said that 667 intern positions would be available in Queensland hospitals in 2012.

"From 2012 onwards almost 100 medical students will graduate in Queensland each year and find themselves without a job", Mr. Bonning said.

"Students without Australian permanent residency status are the ones most likely to be affected by the shortfall."

"These students will be forced to move interstate or internationally to find work as junior doctors."

"This is extremely counterproductive as the community were promised, and are relying on increased numbers of medical graduates moving through the system to overcome workforce shortages among the ranks of senior medical staff in Queensland", Mr. Bonning said.

The Queensland government has done significant work to date to increase intern training capacity in Queensland, however more needs to be done to ensure that the supply of jobs meets demand from graduates into the future.

"To accomplish this, and to ensure the ongoing quality of these training positions, the State and Federal Governments need to start considering novel training environments such as the private sector for intern training", Mr. Bonning said.

"Within a few years the oversupply of medical graduates will affect almost every state in Australia, and we are looking to Queensland to establish leadership and a way forward on this issue.

"If a solution can not be found the investment of time and money into training increased numbers of doctors Australia wide will largely have been wasted", he said.

Australian Medical Students' Association