The AMA says although the number of medical students has increased markedly, Australia’s medical workforce is unevenly distributed with oversupply in some specialities and locations and undersupply in others.
The AMA has called for an independent health workforce planning agency to advise on doctors’ numbers and where they should be located to overcome boom-bust workforce planning.
AMA President Professor Steve Robson said although the number of medical students had massively increased in Australia, Australia’s medical workforce was still unevenly distributed.
The AMA has written to Health Minister Mark Butler, saying an independent health workforce planning agency must be funded to provide robust advice on how many doctors Australia needs and the necessary reforms to support these doctors to work in the locations and specialties where they are most needed.
Professor Robson said, “We need to see the recommendations of the National Medical Workforce Strategy implemented, and these include the creation of an independent health workforce planning and analysis agency.
“It’s time for the government to act on the recommendations in the strategy,” he said.
“There has been an historic lack of long-term medical workforce planning to the point where we don’t even know how many doctors we need.
“More of the same isn’t the answer. Patient access to care will continue to deteriorate until investments in whole-of-medical training pipeline are made.”
Medical schools continue to produce record numbers of medical graduates, however, there are often insufficient training places in some specialty training programs while other programs, like general practice, are unable to fill all their available training places.
The AMA has also released its new position statement on Commonwealth Supported Places (CSPs) and Medical Workforce Supply and Distribution, which also calls for taxpayer funded medical school CSPs to be allocated and distributed according to community and workforce need.
