WANTING to train more doctors might seem like a noble pursuit, but Curtin University’s $110 million plan to start a medical school is meeting high level resistance at the core of the profession.
WANTING to train more doctors might seem like a noble pursuit, but Curtin University’s $110 million plan to start a medical school is meeting high level resistance at the core of the profession.
Curtin has applied to the federal government for 100 places a year, an increase on the current graduate numbers from the University of Western Australia and Notre Dame University by some 30 per cent.
The Australian Medical Association is concerned about new schools because it claims the clinical training resources available to turn graduates into doctors are already stretched to the limit because the number of medical students has doubled in the past six years.
Curtin’s application comes after a doubling of new medical places in WA over the past decade or so, but the university points to the current doctor shortages and rising future projections of demand in the state to make its case.
Curtin vice-chancellor Jeanette Hacket said the university’s proposed course would be different from those currently available, meeting not just the numerical needs for doctors in the future but also reflecting society’s changing health requirements.
“We need that as a community,” Ms Hacket said.
“The alternative is overseas-trained doctors.”
She said that Curtin was well placed to start a medical school because of its significant health sciences specialisation. It already provides pre-clinical teaching to medical students of Fremantle-based Notre Dame.
Ms Hacket said Curtin’s approach would be different from traditional courses providing for health needs in regional and metropolitan areas that were underserviced and conducting inter-professional training to help future doctors better understand other health professionals. Curtin already trains significant numbers of nurses, physiotherapists, pharmacists, occupational therapists and psychologists.
The intention would be to have a common first year for all health science students, including those doing a medical degree.
Curtin’s move comes after a flurry of new medical schools opened in the past decade.
The rise in new graduates has led the AMA to call a summit to solve what it claims is a crisis around the shortage of prevocational and vocational training positions for medical school graduates.
AMA national president Andrew Pesce told WA Business News that the doctors’ union opposed any rise in medical students numbers until the issues surrounding post-graduate training were resolved.
The WA branch of the AMA is understood to have similar concerns but wants to see how the business case for the Curtin school stacks up.
Ms Hacket said the university was aware of the medical profession’s concerns regarding the existing levels of clinical places.
She said Curtin was prepared to provide funds for clinical places in hospitals and, potentially, other locations such aged care facilities.
The Curtin medical school proposal is being guided by Dr Neale Fong, former director-general of the WA Health Department, ex- CEO of St John of God Hospital in Subiaco and a director of occupational medicine provider Prime Health Group until its sale recently.
Dr Fong told WA Business News the accreditation process could take up to three years and that Curtin hoped to have its first intake in 2014, with its first graduates in 2019.
He said he believed there was a need for the medical school in WA, especially one that offered different training and exposure from the traditional medical schools.
Like Ms Hacket, Dr Fong refers to the expected rise in aged care demand a case in point.
“Trying to get doctors to nursing homes can be difficult,” he said.
“If you get students there it kind of raises the standards.”
He is also critical of those who are talking down Curtin’s proposal due to the current concerns about internships – pointing out that by the end of the decade there will be more qualified doctors to provide supervision due to the increased number of graduates during the past 10 years.
“There are other ways of doing it (clinical training) without just squeezing people into the current system.”
Dr Fong said that there were also benefits for the university because most research funding went to universities with medical schools.
