Hundreds of medical students will miss out on internships next year despite a doctor shortage that is predicted to occur within 12 years, a government audit has shown.
An audit of the number of medical internships to be offered next year forecasts that 240 students will not be offered a position upon graduation – all of them international students who have spent an average $250,000 to complete the course.
The Australian Medical Students’ Association estimates that, after those who fail the course or secure a private hospital internship are removed from the equation, about 160 students will be forced to take their training overseas.
The federation’s president, Jessica Dean, said it was a waste of medical graduates when Australia was facing a doctor shortage.
“We need these additional doctors that we have already trained up,” Ms Dean said.
“These students have spent up to six years immersed in Australian culture, learning our diseases and training in our healthcare system.
“They’re having to go overseas and we’re losing them.”
Those who miss out will be international students, who are only offered places after the supply of domestic students is exhausted.
Commonwealth-funded students are guaranteed positions.
A spokesman for federal Health Minister Peter Dutton said it was difficult to gauge internship demand as each state and territory ran its own application process but the government was working with the states, universities, private hospitals and student groups to better co-ordinate the process.
As some students failed or pursued other options, the final internship numbers would not be known for some time, he said.
“Similar concerns in past years regarding a shortage of places have in fact resulted in a shortage of prospective interns,” he said.
Health Workforce Australia – a government agency that was abolished in this year’s federal budget – projected a shortage of 2700 doctors by 2025.
Its 2012 report on the health workforce predicted the demand will be most acute in rural, regional and outer metropolitan areas.
The federal government has committed to fund up to 100 internships in rural and regional private hospitals under the Commonwealth Medical Internship scheme.
But private hospitals only offered a combined total of 76 places for this year.
Health Department officials told the Federal Parliament in February that 53 students missed out.
Ms Dean said this meant that international medical students only had a 38 per cent chance of gaining an internship at the end of their training.
“All of these international students who we’re losing overseas are really keen to work in Australia,” she said. “They’re so keen, in fact, that they’re willing to relocate to areas that we need doctors.”
Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand chief executive Judy Searle disputed those odds, saying it was her understanding that every international student who wanted an internship was successful.
“We spend all this money training doctors in this country, should we be using them onshore?” Professor Searle said. “The answer is ‘yes’.”
The audit of internships was conducted by the National Medical Intern Data Management Working Group, which concluded that some 240 Australian graduates will not be offered a state or territory position.
More than 3676 medical students applied for 3210 internships and up to 100 Commonwealth-funded intern positions this year.
Among the applicants, 3004 were domestic students, 480 were full-fee-paying international students and 192 fell into other categories.