One of the roles of the Medical Program Board (MPB) is to establish the strategic direction for the Flinders MD Program.
The Board has representatives from the key stakeholder groups to the program, including the Clinical Advisory Group, otherwise known as the CAG. One of the tasks for the MPB early in 2022 is to set the priorities for the MD improvement activities including examining the current clinical placement model in the context of future workforce planning. Two main documents, are informing this process:
- The Department of Health’s National Medical Workforce Strategy 2021-2031, and
- Training Tomorrow Doctors: all pulling in the right direction, published by the Medical Deans of Australia and New Zealand
Both papers discuss the need for medical graduates who will build the generalist capability of the medical workforce. Including:
- graduates who will work in specialties that could be based in regional, rural and remote areas, and
- medical programs whose graduates will work in areas of workforce shortage, such as general practice and psychiatry, and
- more broadly, generalism within specialties.
The Flinders MD program is well placed to meet the challenges raised by these papers, particularly with our program covering metropolitan, regional, rural and remote locations in both South Australia and the Northern Territory.
Medical program accreditation by the Australian Medical Council requires that clinical placements occur in clinical disciplines including medicine (and its specialties), women’s health, child health, surgery (and its specialities), mental health and primary care. The exact program is up to the discretion of the medical program. One of the priorities of MD improvement activity in 2022 will be the alignment of the clinical placement model with the directions of these important papers.
If you would like to comment on this work, or would like to be part of this activity, please contact Dr Julie Halbert at Julie.Halbert@flinders.edu.au or on 8201 5494.