MSCV 2012 Forum: Thursday, October 15th, 2009

Watch the MSCV 2012 Forum

The increased number of medical students training through the Victorian health care system and the impact of quality of medical education has been a concern for the Medical Student Council of Victoria (MSCV) since its inception in 2007.

However, an additional concern is the number of prevocational and vocational training positions which also need to rise with increased junior doctors. Have you considered if you will get an internship? Or whether entry into the specialty pathway of your choice will be more competitive? For international students, do you know your prospects of being able to secure internships in the future?

MSCV brought together key stakeholders in medical student education, prevocational training and vocational training to discuss these issues.

Speakers include:

Jamie Alexander – Australian Medical Students’ Association
Ian Graham – Prevocational Medical Council of Victoria
Geoffrey Metz – Committee of President of Medical Colleges, Epworth Hospital
Sarah Mansfield – AMA Victoria Doctors-in-Training

This forum was open to all current medical students considering further training in Victoria.

Watch the MSCV 2012 Forum

Posted under Advocacy, Events

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.

Posted under Advocacy, News

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.

Posted under Advocacy, News

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.

Click here for the media release from the Australian Health Care Ministers Conference held last week in Melbourne.

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.

Posted under Advocacy, News

Last year the Prime Minister and Minister for Health & Ageing created the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission (NHHRC) charged with the task of considering the future of the Australian health system and the long-term reforms required to meet current and future challenges. More info is available on the NHHRC website.

The interim report, initially published in December last year, is now available online.

While the report is pretty weighty, the section that is especially relevant to medical students is that concerned with medical education & training, titled  “Working for us: a sustainable health workforce for the future“.

MSCV is currently considering its position on this report and would love to incorporate your thoughts into our submission. Please let us know what you think by emailing us or commenting on this post.

Posted under Advocacy

MSCV has been concerned with the increase in medical student numbers with 444 new Victorian medical graduates in 2007 expanding to 743 in 2012. While MSCV works to ensure that medical schools are hospitals are able to deal with this surge in numbers and maintain and enhance medical education and training, there are further concerns regarding employment after medical school for our members.

In the state budget released in May 2008, MSCV was pleased to see that funding has been granted for an increase in internship places so that they are commensurate with the number of Victorian domestic medical graduates in 2011. This increase will be rolled out in a stepwise manner with 45 new places each year from 2009 until 2011 and 96 new intern places in 2012 bringing the total number of internship places to 690. In addition, there has also been an increase in funded Hospital Medical Officer (HMO) positions with funding for 151 positions by 2012 (although many HMO positions are currently funded by hospitals (based on need) rather than the state. There are many more HMO positions than internship places).

Funding has also been granted for new initiatives to expand internship places into alternative settings and areas of workforce need. There is also additional funding for Medical Education Officers (MEO) who coordinate intern and HMO education programs. In addition, funding has been granted for support programs for International Medical Graduates.

Currently MSCV sits on the Postgraduate Medical Reference Group – the advisory body to the state government regarding prevocational training that strongly advocated for the urgent need for increased internships.

Issues discussed include:

· Expanding capacity to enable an increase in internship places

· Integration, support of employment of International Medical Graduates

· The role of Medical Education Officers

· Fulfilling areas of workforce need

Posted under Advocacy

In 2006, the State Minister for Health commissioned a Ministerial Review to consider issues surrounding medical workforce recruitment and retention following a range of complex issues that were brought up in the previous round of enterprise bargaining agreements.

The Ministerial Review was completed in November 2007 and released to the general public in April 2008. The Review Panel made 71 recommendations following submissions from interested organizations and individuals, surveys from health services, consultations with key stakeholders and organizations and visits to metropolitan and rural hospitals.

The Ministerial Review on Victorian Public Hospital Medical Staff can be accessed via this link.

Read More…

Posted under Advocacy