Doctors in Training

SCGH RMO Term Allocation Dispute

Junior doctors who had been offered Resident Medical Officer (RMO) positions at SCGH for 2015 were blind-sighted when SCGH Executive announced a change to the number of resident terms at the eleventh hour, moving from the current 5 term structure to 4 terms.  At no point were the AMA (WA) consulted about the proposed change, a process which is mandated in the Department of Health Medical Practitioners (Metropolitan Health Services) AMA Industrial Agreement.   For more information, please click here.

Access to Leave

The dangers of burnout among medical practitioners are well documented. Numerous studies have shown that overworked, fatigued doctors are not only at risk of developing personal problems, such as drug and alcohol misuse and mental health complaints, but that job-related fatigue can also compromise quality of care and increase medical errors.Anecdotally, junior doctors perceive the lack of access to leave as a key cause of burn-out and fatigue. With this in mind, the AMA (WA) Doctors in Training Committee has spent the majority of the year working on improving the access to leave entitlements in WA hospitals.For more information on access to leave, including which hospital rank highest in the ‘access to leave’ scorecard, please click here.

Update on basic physician training for 2015

There is much anticipation for the 2015 employment period amongst junior doctors. Intern job offers have just been announced, resident jobs have closed and registrars await clinical service redesign with bated breath.Co-Chair of the Doctors in Training Committee, Dr Melita Cirillo, has highlighted some of the concerns facing junior doctors, particularly how the restructure of the South Metro Area Health Service and the new focus on ‘trainee selection’ will affect basic physician training applicants in 2015.For more information, please click here.

Part-Time Working Committee

The DiT Committee is striving to improve access to part-time working conditions for JMOs. A sub-committee, comprised of those JMOs interested in part-time advocacy, has been established and met for the first time on 1 July.The discussions were productive with several strategies for improvement identified. The DiT Committee will be following up on these in the coming weeks and will keep members updated on progress.If you are interested in being involved in advocacy for part time positions for JMOs we recommend you attend the DiT Committee meetings held monthly at the AMA (WA). For more information please contact Nicola Roman.

Update on Access to Leave Scorecards

Following the publication of the AMA (WA) Access to Leave Scorecard, the Co-Chairs of the DiT Committee held meetings with the Directors of Clinical Services at Fremantle Hospital, Royal Perth Hospital (RPH) and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital (SCGH).The meeting at Fremantle Hospital was extremely positive; the hospital, in the past twelve months, has implemented a new system to manage applications which has seen all leave applications processed well within the timeframes prescribed by the Department of Health Medical Practitioners (Metropolitan Health Services) AMA Industrial Agreement 2013.SCGH and RPH took note of the feedback from JMOs in the AMA survey and made assurances that they would review their current systems. However, the AMA (WA) would like to hear from those at SCGH and RPH who continue to experience problems accessing their leave.Going forward this will be a strong area of advocacy for the DiT Committee and all members will be kept updated on progress through updates on this page.If you would like more information please do not hesitate to contact Nicola Roman at the AMA (WA).

Pre-Vocational General Practice Placements Program (Community Residence Program)

The PGPPP (Community Residence Program) lost its Federal Government funding in this year’s budget. Luckily for junior doctors in Western Australia, the Health Department of WA has recognised the importance of the Community Residency Program and have agreed to fund the program in 2015.In 2015 the program is expected to provide up to 25 full-time equivalent junior doctor community positions – some 100 individual rotations – across outer-metropolitan, rural and remote areas of WA. These positions are also integrated with the WA rural practice pathway.The AMA (WA) DiT Committee is particularly pleased with this win for WA as the community residencies have provided valuable experience and career direction to so many young doctors, especially those exploring opportunities in rural and remote WA.Good luck to all those who have applied for the 2015 program!

2015 Centralised RMO Recruitment Process

The 2015 Centralised RMO Recruitment Process is now open and the Association will be keeping a close eye on proceedings. The Co-Chairs of the AMA (WA) DiT Committee met with PMCWA prior to applications opening and were pleased that PMCWA had taken on board many of the suggested changes advocated by the AMA following the 2014 application process.The Association is keen to hear from those practitioners applying for part-time positions.Please email Nicola Roman, to keep the industrial team updated on the progress of your part-time application.

Welcome to the DiT Newsfeed

Welcome to the new AMA (WA) DiT Newsfeed! Keep a close eye on this page for updates from the AMA (WA) and the Doctors-in-Training Committee. If there is something you would like to see on this feed please email Nicola Roman