DOCTORS REFORM SOCIETY

Media Release

Saturday, 8 April 2006

HOWARD’S HALF MEASURES FOR DOCTOR SHORTAGE THEY CAUSED

“The 400 new HECS funded medical student places are a belated move by the Howard Government to partially reverse their own disastrous decision to restrict medical and nursing student places 10 years ago, a decision which has lead to the widespread doctor and nurse shortage we now face,” said Dr Tim Woodruff, President, Doctors Reform Society.

“But even with this announcement, it is only a half measure,” said Dr Woodruff. “The Government’s own advisory body, the Australian Medical Workforce Advisory Council (AMWAC), last year reported the need for a total of at least 1100 new GPs a year just to address the current shortage of GPs and keep up with new demands. But only 45% of medical graduates become GPs and even with the increase of a total of 646 new places funded by the Government there will still be a shortfall every year of about 400 graduates. That’s before addressing shortages of specialists.”

“Money cannot be an excuse in the presence of continued huge budget surpluses,” said Dr Woodruff. “A lack of facilities cannot be an excuse in view of the huge number of overseas medical students being educated in our medical schools (because they pay). It’s time the Government tackled the problem fully rather than with half measures.”  

Dr Tim Woodruff

President

Doctors Reform Society