Rediscovering University Teaching Hospitals For Australia

Main Category: Medical Students / Training
Article Date: 14 Sep 2008 - 0:00 PDT

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There is now a "once in a generation" opportunity to get sensible plans in place for health care over the next 20 years, according to an article in the latest issue of the Medical Journal of Australia.

Professor David Penington, from the Bio21 Cluster at the University of Melbourne, said that the appointment of the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission (NHHRC) and the suspension of the five-year Australian Health Care Agreements (AHCAs) allowed the powers that be to pause and consider whether Australia had the essentials in place to handle emerging health challenges.

Professor Penington said Australia's teaching hospitals are in danger of falling seriously behind those in other countries and losing their capacity to monitor quality, to innovate and to branch into new strategies in partnership with primary care services unless something is done immediately.

"Australia has outstanding medical research and first-class clinicians, but the two need to be brought together effectively with appropriate support. A small investment could yield great benefits," he said.

"Major teaching hospitals and their associated universities have much to offer if they accept a commitment to extend their roles in partnership with primary health care."

Professor Penington said university hospitals hold the key, if they are appropriately linked to other services. Unfortunately, teaching hospitals were increasingly funded and managed as large community hospitals, with little recognition of their special functions.

"When managed correctly, teaching hospitals provide better quality health care than non-teaching institutions because they recruit and retain the best staff, and inevitably influence hospitals linked to them for undergraduate teaching, intern and registrar rotations."

Professor Penington also said that existing links between major teaching hospitals, community hospitals and regional hospitals, for both medical education and postgraduate training, needed to be formalised in a "hub and spoke" model so that education, research and development involved a wide network.

"We must think broadly and be aware of what is happening elsewhere in the world where similar problems are being tackled.

"Many assume advances in health care just happen, but on the world scene, major university hospitals have provided most of them. These hospitals have a great history with important messages that are still relevant today," he said.

The Medical Journal of Australia