A recently article in Australian Doctor reports that the specialist medical colleges generally support the government’s new scheme for National Registration & Accreditation. However like us, they are waiting to see the legislation before through their full support behind the controversial reform.
You can read the full article here.
This post was written by Sham on May 20, 2009
The hottest issue on the medico-political agenda over the last year or so has been the much foreshadowed reform to nationalise registration & accreditation for health care professionals. Details have finally been published by the Australian Health Workforce Ministerial Council and are available here.
The most specific outcome pertaining to students is that the new national medical board will be required to register medical students. This will not be new for Victorian medical students as we are all already required to register with the Medical Practitioners Board of Victoria when we commence first year, however it will bring other states in line with us. This will allow the national board to take an interest in student impairment or serious legal convictions where public safety is at risk, as already occurs in Victoria. Are there any other implications? Well we have heard stories where on rare occassions interstate students have had difficult completing training (e.g. elective) in states other than their own due to registration issues so we hope national registration of students will alleviate this ridiculousness!
AMSA and the AMA have naturally been working hard to represent medical students and the medical profession in general in this issue. Broadly speaking, AMSA supports National Registration as it will finally allow our tertiary qualifications (i.e. MBBS) to be universally recognised around Australia and thus allow medical graduates from an Australian uni to be able to practice freely anywhere in this great country. HOWEVER, The serious reservations concern national accreditation, which we worry will the government to meddle with accreditation standards of Australian medical degrees to suit workforce needs and will detrimentally effect the high regard Australian medical graduates currently have in the global arena. You can read AMSA’s full submission to the government here. And if you’re interested further in the issue the AMA has its say here.
Email your thoughts to mscv [at] mscv.ummss.org.au.
This post was written by Sham on May 19, 2009
Word on the street is the Rudd government may be considering cutting back on funding for rural incentive programs. While its all a bit vague at the moment, and no one is prepared to officially comment at this stage, such rural incentive programs may include the rural scholarship programs that have financially supported students interested in rural practice through medical school.
Read the orginal article published in Queensland’s Courier Mail here.
Posted under News
This post was written by Sham on April 16, 2009
A new newsletter has recently sprung up aiming to provide medical students along with our senior colleagues with advice on how to maintain ‘resilience’ during times of stress, or in their words “real resilience resources”. It is early days yet but this joint initiative from General Practice Registrars Australia (GPRA) and the General Practice Students Network (GPSN) seems to be a good one. It might just be one of the many blogs out there, like this one worth subscribing too 
Check it out here.
Posted under News
This post was written by Sham on March 31, 2009
AMSA calls for more to be done to support international medical students studying in Australia, who after contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars to Australian medical schools and meeting Australian healthcare standards are not guaranteed an internship in this country. Read AMSA’s media release in full here.
Posted under News
This post was written by Sham on March 31, 2009
Australian Health Ministers have reaffirmed their support of the commonwealth governments plan to nationalise the registration and accreditation process of doctors and other health care professionals.
Let MSCV know what you think about this contentious issue so we can better represent Victoria’s future doctors.
Email us via mscv [AT] mscv.ummss.org.au.
This post was written by Sham on March 11, 2009
Final year med students hoping to secure a Victorian internship in 2009, this one is for you: you can now register on PMCV’s Intern Match website. Doing this will allow PMCV to keep you updated on the process and allow you to start submitting those clinical referees…
Posted under News
This post was written by Sham on March 4, 2009
