Attracting new specialists will be increasingly difficult as the specialist ranks dwindle at Launceston General Hospital, Australian Medical Association Tasmanian president Dr Stuart Day says.
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It will be a greater challenge to attract and retain young doctors while the fate of the hospital’s downgraded training accreditation remains undecided.
Dr Day said attracting specialists not only benefited patients, but it also helped to encourage more specialists to a hospital as it developed a medical profession community.
That helped improve professional standards by encouraging doctors to consult each other, he said.
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“If we can add a specialist, it means we're more likely to recruit and retain more."
The downgrade from a Level 3 to a Level 2 training hospital limits the number of years a young doctor can study their basic physician training at the hospital.
It would make attracting specialists more challenging, combined with the lack of an extensive specialist community at the hospital, Dr Day said.
Dr Day said the hospital lost its level 3 teaching accreditation because it did not have enough specialists, including neurologists and endocrinologists, which would be amplified by the loss of the North and North-West’s only full-time neurologist Dr Kurien Koshy in August.
“It will make it difficult to attract young doctors,” Dr Day said.
Health Minister Michael Ferguson referred questions to the Department of Health and Human Services.
A government spokeswoman said the government wrote to the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RCAP) “to express our strong support that the LGH is a successful teaching hospital for physicians, with appropriate access to quality supervision, opportunities to improve clinical skills and knowledge, and continuing research and education opportunities”.
An RCAP spokeswoman confirmed the college was reviewing the request to have it reestablished as a Level 3 teaching hospital.
One of the requirements needed to reach a Level 3 accreditation is for a hospital to have at least nine medical specialty departments, each headed by a physician with time available to supervise trainees.
It also requires an established undergraduate and postgraduate teaching program and “demonstrated significant activity in clinical and basic research on the basis of grants and published papers.