Medical Graduate Tsunami

[Jjub]

Agreed... but we have it... I agree with Ben also... addressing the source is good for the long-term, but what about the people already building their houses next to the beach?

Also... don't we need more trained doctors anyway? Wouldn't creating more training places be the real solution overall?

 

[Matt]

Only slightly screwed? Relative to the level of screwed I'll be, probably.. but don't you have the wondrous task of getting into a specialty to deal with now?

With each successive year the number of junior doctors not on specialist training pathways will increase, demand will increase, supply will the stay the same. Each year the problem for specialist training will get worse. I'm at least among the first in line to enter the bottleneck.... even if, as things are already, the bottleneck is very tight.

 

[Jackie]

Isn't there an AMC exam for graduates to take?
I swear medsoc subsidises money for students to take this exam, and this helps them to qualify.

And the thing is, we need more doctors, in the right places and enough to shorten waiting times etc.

 

[Havox]

Only slightly screwed? Relative to the level of screwed I'll be, probably.. but don't you have the wondrous task of getting into a specialty to deal with now?

We all have that task except as the year go by this will become more and more difficult.

Also... don't we need more trained doctors anyway? Wouldn't creating more training places be the real solution overall?

And...you need more specialists to train more regs? And where do these specialists and registrars come from I wonder?

 

[n33b]

I think you're neglecting the problem that will occur post-internship when there will be many eligible applicants for only a handful of speciality training spots. Pretty soon, all the spots of every program will be filled and Australia will be left with an excess number of resident medical officers whose skills are not able to develop past that stage until there are more training spots, which can only be accomplished by having more specialists who are willing to teach them or by overloading the available spots and possibly compromising the new specialists' quality in the process. Having said that, it's impossible to know what will really become of the current situation, all we can do is wait and hope for the best.

 

[Benjamin]

And while waiting for the final verdict, I'll take solace in the fact that if all goes badly I can probably still fall back on my desire to do research

 

[Jjub]

Back to my original question... are any steps currently being taken to address this by federal and state governments?

 

[Jackie]

Yeah, it's not just gonna stop at 2015... we would wish.
They need to start doing something about it now, but it wasn't really addressed in the federal election.
Even though they increased 6000 more places for GPs, there's still more that needs to be done.

 

[Benjamin]

Back to my original question... are any steps currently being taken to address this by federal and state governments?

My local council member was actually advocating/lobbying for more places for medical students last year.. these people clearly have no idea how the medical system works.

 

[Hutcherson]

Maybe your local council member was lobbying for more places because there is such a shortage in rural areas. I am assuming he was lobbying for more medical places at JCU? But then again, it will still cause a problem anyway as we may not have enough doctors in rural areas to assist in those internships if they continue to increase the number of med places. *sits and watches the tsunami approach her*

 

[Benjamin]

Perhaps Hutch, I'm not sure.

[Offtopic]Does the tsunami affect dentistry at all? Or are they protected to some extent by the fact that they can open a private practice straight out of uni?[/offtopic]

 

[sainteced]

[OFFTOPIC] Yeah I think that is one of the major reasons Dentistry wouldn't necessarily encounter such problems. I do not know for sure though.

So moral of the story: Do Dentistry, at-least you get a job after you graduate.[/OFFTOPIC]

 

[Hutcherson]

Perhaps Hutch, I'm not sure.

[Offtopic]Does the tsunami affect dentistry at all? Or are they protected to some extent by the fact that they can open a private practice straight out of uni?[/Offtopic]

Interesting question. In my opinion ( which might not be correct ), the number of dentists that graduate per uni ranges from 40 - 80 on average, depending on the university. So I will make a rough estimate of about 500 graduating a year in Australia. Some international students will go back home to practice, while most domestic students stay in Australia. Probably due to the fact that you can open your own practice staright away seems to avoid the tsunami problem as well dentists opening more than one clinic. And there are many dentistry jobs on offer in rural areas. The army take dentistry graduates aswell. Some go to specialise for 3 more years while others go into research. As well as current dentists retiring or moving to teach at universities etc In the end it tends to balance out to a certain extent. But there probably is a case of too many dentists in city and not enough in the country. I would love to hear an actual opinion from a dentist or a dentistry student, as this is just a overall guess/ factors I could think of.

 

[Havox]

That opens up the whole thing about whether dental students get adequate clinical experience and whatnot as it is but that's really a topic for the current dent guys to discuss.

 

[Benjamin]

The army take dentistry graduates aswell.

Here's a question! You can apply to be an ADFA student - supported by the Austalian Defence Forces - as a medical student once you get to your 2nd year and in any year after that. If you do this you get something like $20,000 a year and it increases as you progress towards the end of your degree, plus you have no HECS fee(I think) and you don't get charged tax. Now the question is - this is assuming the Defence Forces have some kind of training hospitals at their disposal that aren't available to other interns, or have priority.. I might be wrong in this assumption, I haven't researched it as I don't know where to look! - if you joined the defence forces before your 4th year then you'd be paid about $30,000 a year for the next three years, have a guaranteed internship spot and job once you quit and only be 'bonded' to them for 3 years(from memory it's the amount of years you studied whilst being paid+1 year).. Would it be worth it?

 

[sainteced]

Here's a question! You can apply to be an ADFA student - supported by the Austalian Defence Forces - as a medical student once you get to your 2nd year and in any year after that. If you do this you get something like $20,000 a year and it increases as you progress towards the end of your degree, plus you have no HECS fee(I think) and you don't get charged tax. Now the question is - this is assuming the Defence Forces have some kind of training hospitals at their disposal that aren't available to other interns, or have priority.. I might be wrong in this assumption, I haven't researched it as I don't know where to look! - if you joined the defence forces before your 4th year then you'd be paid about $30,000 a year for the next three years, have a guaranteed internship spot and job once you quit and only be 'bonded' to them for 3 years(from memory it's the amount of years you studied whilst being paid+1 year).. Would it be worth it?

I'm assuming that the Defence Forces Students would have some way of getting priority - the Army doesn't want to have to wait for the doctors it's just trained and it only has you for 6 years, after all -

Where did you see this? Is this with any uni? like UWS?

 

[chinaski]

Now the question is - this is assuming the Defence Forces have some kind of training hospitals at their disposal that aren't available to other interns, or have priority.. I might be wrong in this assumption, I haven't researched it as I don't know where to look!

Incorrect. People on military scholarships don't begin their ROSO until they complete internship and usually residency in a civilian hospital. In short, they complete their pre-vocational years, just like everyone else, before they leave the system to pay back their time.

 

[Benjamin]

Incorrect. People on military scholarships don't begin their ROSO until they complete internship and usually residency in a civilian hospital. In short, they complete their pre-vocational years, just like everyone else, before they leave the system to pay back their time.

Once again, my blind hope is destroyed.

 

[chinaski]

Sorry. Military scholarships carry a huge claw anyway - but that's another thread.

 

[jobensingh]

scary, foreboding stuff!