abc news...unis plan

Universities look to cut doctor training time

Australia's health ministers are considering a plan to slash medical training time by up to four years.

A consortium of universities is behind the plan put to a meeting of the ministers in Brisbane this week.

A consultant to the consortium, Vin Massaro, says students would be channelled into specialties earlier.

He says they would skip general medical education that is considered superfluous to specialists' requirements.

"We would enable students who have made a decision about what specialty they want to move into to start to take some of those courses during their initial medical education," he said.

"At the moment, the training programs are far too long.

"If we're trying to address the medical work force shortage, the only way we're going to do that is to have a proper look at our courses."

The consortium has been asked to report back to the next meeting of health ministers in November.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200607/s1700273.htm