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GPH News Summer 2014

Demonstrating commitment to medical training Greenslopes Private Hospital as part of Ramsay Health Care has taken the opportunity to create flexible career paths for doctors from entry as medical students to fully trained specialists, with aims to achieve this across all disciplines and locations. Traditionally private hospitals have not matched the public sector with medical teaching and training. But now through well targeted federal funding incentives the private sector can offer full career training in nearly all specialties. The increase in training numbers was initially accommodated in an opportunistic manner by the private hospitals. Medical schools were given access to the hospitals and Specialist Training Program (STP) funding initiated for advanced specialty training. Now the private sector is in a position to offer the full range and progression of medical training. This progression isn’t to compete with the public sector nor to be independent from it, but rather to demonstrate that the training is across all aspects of the health care sector. The training imperative is no longer an opportunistic pursuit nor merely dabbling in the area. It is a major commitment to comprehensive training. Initially training was a form of late recruitment for hospitals encouraging the involvement of fellows who would soon be productive specialists working in the hospitals. When Ramsay Health Care took over the running of the two large former Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) hospitals they maintained the 10 GPHnews comprehensive junior doctor compliment in both Hollywood Private and Greenslopes Private Hospitals. At the time the intention was to phase this out so the hospitals would revert to a more standard private hospital’s profile of medical cover. However, the teaching profile in these hospitals has persisted and expanded. Ramsay Health Care has also shown its commitment to medical training with the public contract hospitals. Joondalup has a full range of junior training positions including clinical school teaching with the universities. The commitment in Ramsay is now mirrored by other private hospital providers such as Epworth in Melbourne, The SAN in Sydney, the Mater Group in Queensland and others. This broader commitment demonstrates that medical training in private is good for business as well as fulfilling the private sector’s duty to train. This commitment within the private sector is now maturing to offer career progression in the private sector through the entire spectrum of training from medical students to advanced trainees. And the training is provided in networks including the public hospitals, different private hospitals groups and rural placements. The latest innovation has been the private hospitals’ accommodation to expanded internship placements. In 2014 there are 3556 graduating medical students from Australian universities seeking internships to gain their medical registration. While all Australian residents are well placed for position there are over 160 foreign students with Australian medical degrees looking for positions in Australia. The Commonwealth has agreed to fund these internships provided the students agree at graduation to return service in rural areas within Australia. As there are insufficient accredited positions in Australia the private hospitals have created new positions for these interns. Working with the provincial public hospitals in Queensland and Western Australia, 100 positions are now funded for the “Rural Pipeline”. Greenslopes Private is working with a network of rural placements in Kingaroy, Noosa, Bundaberg, Mt Isa and Mackay. This is to maximise the placements to ensure all the interns have an opportunity to gain their registration as well as maintain their exposure and commitment to the rural placements. Greenslopes has accepted 33 new interns to spend at least a third of their year in rural positions. In WA the Ramsay hospitals of Hollywood and Peel Campus at Mandurah have offered positions to 20 more interns. This intern group will then be accommodated in the expanded rural position for their subsequent years. Greenslopes has started rotating the later year Junior Medical Officers (JMOs) to Kingaroy, Noosa, Royal Flying Doctor Service at Charleville and Longreach, Warwick, Barcaldine and other great training positions in rural Queensland. The initiative by the Commonwealth to fund intern placements in private hospitals will result in rural hospitals and communities being served by graduates from Australian medical schools with a genuine interest in rural medicine and rural life with the support of the private hospitals. ...now through well targeted federal funding incentives the private sector can offer full career training in nearly all specialties... Interns attending orientation at Greenslopes Private Hospital in January 2013 before commencing their first rotation.


GPH News Summer 2014
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