Education and Training

This year’s Council of Australian Governments meeting resolved that there will be a major reform of how all health professionals will have their training accredited and how individual health professionals will be registered to practise. This is a significant change from the 100–year tradition whereby the functions were largely state-based. The new procedures will ensure that all health professionals practising in Australia will be of a uniform high standard and able to move freely throughout the Commonwealth. Discipline-specific boards will be established to set standards and manage registration, while state committees will implement the procedures and manage professional issues such as discipline and impairment matters. It is anticipated that this will all be in place by June 2008 following the completion and signing of the Intergovernmental Agreement by all governments.

Another project that has moved to the implementation phase is the establishment of training for specialists in a much broader setting than the traditional teaching hospital. It has been recognised for some time that changes in how health care is delivered no longer allow trainees to experience a full range of teaching in these traditional environments. Discussions with a number of health-care organisations, medical colleges, and state and territory departments have ensured that there will be up to 50 training places commencing in 2008. These are complementary to established training places in the public hospital system and will provide those experiences that are necessary to give the training program complete coverage.