Media Releases and Communiques

Australian Health Ministers’ Conference Communiqué - 12 February 2010

At the Australian Health Ministers’ Conference, all Ministers have committed to jointly plan through Health Workforce Australia for the quality clinical undergraduate training for all of our future health professionals.

PDF printable version of Australian Health Ministers’ Conference Communiqué (PDF 48 KB)

12 February 2010

Today at the Australian Health Ministers’ Conference all Ministers have committed to jointly plan through Health Workforce Australia for the quality clinical undergraduate training for all of our future health professionals.

This National Plan will boost the number of clinical training places available to help produce the next generation of doctors, nurses and allied health professionals.

Co-ordinated national planning will ensure for the first time that clinical training providers will receive transparent funding for their effort- whether this is a large public hospital in Melbourne or a General Practice surgery in Cloncurry.

This commitment to meet increased demand is of particular importance as the health professional student numbers grow over the coming years.

For example, it is anticipated that the numbers of commencing medical student numbers (domestic) will increase from 1820 in 2008 to 2912 in 2012- a 60% increase.

All jurisdictions have agreed to separate budget reporting as a first step to clearly identify in their budgets their commitment to maintaining effort (table attached). All jurisdictions acknowledge the expected growth.

Ministers strongly acknowledged their commitment to provide all Australian medical and nursing graduates with an intern place to allow them to complete their training.

States and Territories have all agreed to guarantee to provide high-quality clinical placements and intern training for Commonwealth-funded medical and nursing students.

Currently there are 2.1 million clinical training days which States agree to maintain as a baseline (breakdown attached). Today’s landmark plan will ensure that the number of training places will grow over time and that ultimately Australians will find it easier to get the health care they need, where they need it.

Today’s agreement has reaffirmed that all Governments are prepared to work together to tackle key challenges facing our health system.

The first board of Health Workforce Australia (HWA) has been also appointed, with the Hon Jim McGinty being appointed to the position of Chairman of the Board.

The 12 other Members of the Board have experience across a broad cross section of health professionals - including doctors, nursing and allied health - as well as expertise in teaching, training and running our vital health services.

Undergraduate Clinical Training Subsidy- State Commitment to Maintain Effort

		2009-10 $	2010-11 $	2011-12 $	2012-13 $	TOTAL $
	NSW	22,028,747	45,785,119	46,898,508	47,361,965	162,074,341
	Vic	16,724,978	34,761,629	35,606,952	35,958,824	123,052,383
	Qld	13,486,781	28,031,275	28,712,932	28,996,676	99,227,664
	WA	6,814,737	14,163,927	14,508,361	14,651,735	50,138,760
	SA	5,067,214	10,531,830	10,787,940	10,894,547	37,281,531
	Tas	1,576,925	3,277,521	3,357,223	3,390,400	11,602,068
	NT	692,540	1,439,394	1,474,397	1,488,967	5,095,298
	ACT	1,086,692	2,258,610	2,313,534	2,336,396	7,995,232
	TOTAL	67,478,617	140,249,305	143,659,846	145,079,511	496,467,277

Clinical training days by setting and State/Territory, 2009

	TOTALS*
NSW	809,796
Vic	584,321
Qld	378,453
SA	91,586
WA	180,370
Tas	N/A in caretaker
NT	28,048
ACT	34,001
Australia	2,106,575

*Data provided by States and Territories- subject to validation

Ministers noted that the Tasmanian Minister was unable to participate in the meeting as it had moved into election caretaker mode.

Media contact: Jason Frenkel 0438 361 865, Minister Andrew’s office
Laura Ryan 02 6277 7220, Minister Roxon’s office