Medical Students Congratulate New Prime Minister and Call for her to Assure the Quality of our Future Doctors
24 June 2010
The Australian Medical Students’ Association (AMSA) congratulates the Hon Julia Gillard MP on becoming Australia’s 27th Prime Minister and calls on her to freeze medical student numbers for the time being.
AMSA President, Ross Roberts-Thomson said that ensuring quality clinical training for Australia’s medical students is AMSA’s top priority, and AMSA calls on the new Prime Minister to meet with AMSA to discuss this important issue.
“To ensure Australia’s high standard of medical education it must be ensured that medical student numbers in the near future do not exceed critical mass and overwhelm our healthcare system’s capacity to effectively train medical students and produce world-class doctors.
“To do that, Australia urgently needs an independent national body to define and determine Australia’s clinical training capacity. This body should have the power to restrict medical student numbers at the individual university level.
“Until such a time as Australia’s clinical training capacity is determined, AMSA calls for a freeze on total medical student numbers, which includes Commonwealth Supported Places as well as private and full fee paying places,” he said.
