Is driving taxis what’s in store for our medical graduates? Up to 40 international medical students will miss out on internships this year, according to a recent survey by the Australian Medical Students Association (AMSA). The intern crisis looks set to worsen too, extending to domestic students in South Australia next year in an “unprecedented” […]
Is driving taxis what’s in store for our medical graduates?
Up to 40 international medical students will miss out on internships this year, according to a recent survey by the Australian Medical Students Association (AMSA).
The intern crisis looks set to worsen too, extending to domestic students in South Australia next year in an “unprecedented” event, AMSA president Elise Buisson told TMR.
While there is still officially one more round of offers left for this year’s cohort, whether that will cover the 40 place shortfall is “hard to say”, Ms Buisson said.
There is uncertainty as to what will happen to the graduates who miss out on an offer, after having spent up to $300,000 over the course of their degree. It’s not clear whether they will be offered a priority position in the next round of offer in the following year, or will be left to try to find work overseas, Ms Buisson said.
“Without an internship they can’t become fully qualified and they can’t continue training as a doctor, so they’re in a really difficult spot,” she said.
Carmel Tebbutt, CEO of Medical Deans of Australia and New Zealand (MDANZ), said the group were concerned about the reports of graduates missing out on intern places.
The number of commencing domestic and international students plateaued at a total of 3777 in 2015, and it remains a challenge to ensure the right mix of medical professionals in regional and rural Australia, Ms Tebbutt said.
Both AMSA and MDANZ stress the importance of looking at the suggestions in last year’s COAG review into medical intern training, particularly in terms of expanding training settings for interns.
AMSA have called on the federal government to renew their commitment to the Commonwealth Medical Internships (CMI) Initiative that has so far ensured 100 students get internship positions each year.
“As the CMI program is set to be reviewed this year, AMSA will be strongly advocating for the federal government to continue funding the initiative,” said Ms Buisson.
So far the internships offered by the CMI have only been available to international students, due to the nationwide agreement between states to guarantee that domestic students get internships.
“Which why it’s such a shock to us that there’s a shortfall in internship spots for domestic students in South Australia for next year,” Ms Buisson said.
The South Australia figures are based off a gap between the estimated numbers of medical graduates coming from the state’s schools, and the internship places on offer by South Australia Health.
“They’re not going to match up,” Ms Buisson said. “We just keep growing the number of medical student places that we take in but there’s not going to be a commensurate increase in the number of places that they’ll be providing.”
“We’ve got enough medical students, what we need to be doing is investing in the training pathways so that they can become fully qualified doctors. That’s what the country needs.”
