Medical Deans have welcomed the investment in the education and training of Australia’s future health workforce, agreed to yesterday at the Council of Australian Government meeting in Canberra.

The president of Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand, Professor Allan Carmichael, said the initiatives in the National Healthcare Agreement showed a strong commitment to developing a health workforce that could meet the long-term health needs of Australia’s population.

Professor Carmichael said the establishment of a national health workforce agency and health workforce statistical register was particularly welcome. “The workforce agency will improve the coordination of clinical training and provide a much needed impetus to medical workforce planning,” he said.

The healthcare agreement’s inclusion of additional funding for undergraduate clinical training and an increase of 605 postgraduate training places, including 212 GP places would help ensure that medical students were well-equipped with the skills and knowledge to address the healthcare needs of Australians, he said.

The clinical training of medical students would also be enhanced by the provision of funding to train 7000 medical supervisors who will oversee the clinical training of medical students, Professor Carmichael said. “This will ease the workload of the hospital-and community-based staff or university staff with complementary employment arrangements at teaching hospitals who are currently providing this training but are stretched for time and resources.”

Professor Carmichael also applauded the federal government’s funding of $175.6 million in capital infrastructure for the expansion of education and training facilities at major regional hospitals to improve clinical training in regional Australia. “This will augment very successful programs that have been run in recent years through the Rural Clinical Schools to recruit and retain medical graduates to non-metropolitan areas,” he said.