Students turn their backs on General Practice: Government must
act
July 7, 2008
The Rudd Government must immediately increase funding for training
places in General Practice to attract more students to Primary
Care after a groundbreaking survey of WA medical students revealed
only 17 per cent intend to become GPs, the AMA (WA) said today.
The WA GP Education and Training Medical Student Survey of more
than 700 medical students revealed more than 25 per cent planned
to become surgeons. General Practice ranked second, but the percentage
was down from the heady days of the 80s when about half of all
medical students wanted to be GPs.
"This does not bode well for the future of General Practice and
action must be taken now to support and encourage more medical
students into the profession and open up more appropriate training
places," said Dr Steve Wilson, chair of the AMA (WA) Councill of
General Practice.
"It's a fantastic profession – we just need to help them realise
it."
The survey, which was carried out by WA medical students, also
included a series of focus groups.
"The number of students who want to go into General Practice has
dwindled over the years, and this survey shows there are a number
of factors in play, including relatively poor remuneration, lack
of suitable training places and perceived difficulties in work-life
balance," said WAGPET chief executive Dr Janice Bell.
"If the Federal Government does not come to the party and work
with the AMA and tertiary institutions to remedy this trend, the
future of General Practice will continue to look bleak. Ultimately,
it will be patients who pay the price as their access to informed,
experienced and appropriate primary care-givers is compromised."
The survey, which was the first conducted in WA, will continue
to follow the respondents through their medical careers to evaluate
how many students end up in their chosen professions.
The survey revealed that:
- 28.3 per cent of respondents wanted to become surgeons
- 17.8 per cent wanted to become General Practitioners
- The next most popular career choices were paediatrics (13.2
per cent), hospital medicine (9.2 per cent) emergency medicine
(8.5 per cent) and obstetrics and gynaecology (6.9 per cent)
- A similar survey of Victorian students conducted during the
80s to 90s showed the popularity of General Practice fell from
a high of 50 per cent in 1980 to 33 per cent in 1995.
General Practice was more popular with female students, with 22.9
per cent wanting to be GPs compared to 11 per cent of male students
Dr Bell said the good news was that all training places for GPs
for 2009 had been oversubscribed for the first time in eight years.
"We have been working hard to attract medical students to General
Practice by offering comprehensive education and encouragement
and it is starting to pay off; we were oversubscribed for our 58
funded training places," she said. "However, we are restricted
on how many training places we can offer by the level of Federal
Government funding."
Dr Bell said the key reasons medical students rejected General
Practice as a profession included:
- Perceptions about low remuneration
- Time constraints with patients
- Poor experience in GP placements
"The feedback we received suggested better remuneration, promoting
the advantages of General Practice such as flexible hours, and
giving students greater access to training with enthusiastic GPs,
could help attract more students to the profession."
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