Key points
- The costs of expanding training settings to meet educational and workforce requirements were determined by consulting with key stakeholders, reviewing AMWAC reports and modelling.
- To provide training in a diverse range of settings for educational purposes and still maintain the public teaching hospital workforce, the ten surveyed specialties would require approximately a 20% increase in the total number of specialist trainees.
- The increase in trainees needed to meet the educational requirement across the ten sample specialties would cost between $123 and $132 million per annum. Variables such as infrastructure, resources, supervision, insurance (including medical indemnity) and administration were included in the costing of expanded training settings. It is also anticipated that some additional capital funding injections may be necessary.
- It is anticipated that the number of specialist trainees will double by the latter half of the next decade, due to increased graduates from additional medical school places. At that time, settings other than public teaching hospitals could provide training for up to 2,100 to 2,400 specialist trainees (excluding general practice) based on the educational benefits alone.
- If this use of additional training settings could be achieved, it would significantly reduce the pressure on the public system from the major increase in numbers entering specialist training, and only present marginal increases in costs to the training system.