Prime Minister Tony Abbott has pledged federal support for a new medical school in Perth’s east, despite strong criticism of the plan by the Australian Medical Association (AMA).
The Federal Government will contribute $20 million a year over 10 years, once the Curtin University medical school in the suburb of Midland is fully operational.
However, the AMA is against the plan, saying there are inadequate training places at WA’s hospitals which could put lives at risks.
Mr Abbott was in Perth to announce the federal funding for WA’s third medical school, which was an election promise by the Barnett Government in 2013.
The Prime Minister said WA needed more locally trained doctors.
“Around the country, only 26 per cent of doctors are overseas trained. Here in Western Australia, 38 per cent of doctors are overseas trained so plainly Western Australia needs more local doctors,” he said.
Yesterday, the head of the WA branch of the AMA said a new medical school in Midland “would be one of the worst decisions made in WA’s health sector”.
Dr Michael Gannon said there were already too many medical graduates without adequate hands-on experience.
“Right now we have medical students where there’s 10 or 12 of them sitting around a teaching ward with a patient; it’s common for medical students to graduate without having delivered a baby,” he said.
“They’re getting less and less experienced. Into this environment we now have a decision, which on the face of it, looks like we’ll have another 60 to 80 medical students who just won’t have jobs.”
The school will be the only undergraduate entry program in the state and is expected to open in 2017 with 60 students, increasing to 120 by 2022.
Burns specialist Fiona Wood backs school
Prominent West Australian burns specialist Fiona Wood has backed Perth getting a third medical school.
Professor Wood said there were many ways to ensure doctors get the training they need.
“We have to be innovative with respect to our educational strategies,” she said.
“We have a whole raft of technology out there that can be used in order to make sure we not only have an increasing number, but they’re the best trained in the world.”
Professor Wood said Western Australia needed more doctors.
“I do believe that at Fiona Stanley [Hospital] now, we have a shortage of junior doctors,” she said.
“So why wouldn’t we want to train more?”
She said giving a young person the chance to study medicine was both special and a privilege.
“To give anybody an opportunity to study something which will change others lives is extraordinary, so from my perspective I don’t see anything but an opportunity here in increasing our capacity to care for people.
“It’s an extraordinary opportunity to be a doctor. The fact there might be more of us is special.”