Roles and Functions of the Postgraduate Medical Council of Tasmania

The Council's role is to ensure the provision of high quality training and supervision of Prevocational doctors in public hospitals in Tasmania. It achieves these functions via 3 broad areas of activity:

Education
The council employs staff in each of the 3 main public hospitals in Tasmania, whose role is to develop, coordinate, and evaluate the delivery of dedicated teaching to JMOs in the hospital. These staff are Medical Education Advisors (MEAs) and Directors of Clinical Training (DCTs). They are responsible for ensuring that the JMOs receive appropriate orientation to the workplace, regular dedicated teaching sessions, high quality clinical supervision, and structured assessment and feedback as to their performance.

Accreditation
The Council is responsible for ensuring that each hospital provides appropriate support and training for the JMOs employed there, in accordance with standards agreed between the Council and the Medical Council of Tasmania. The Council undertakes regular structured assessment visits to each site to ensure that these standards are being met. Over the next 12 months, it is likely that there will be a nationally agreed set of standards that all Postgraduate Medical Councils (PMCs) will adopt.

International Medical Graduates
As a response to the significant shortage of skilled medical staff in Australia, there has been a massive increase in recruitment of international medical graduates (IMGs) in all states and territories over the last 10 years – as junior medical staff, specialists and general practitioners. The majority of these doctors have been recruited from the Third World and many have experienced considerable difficulty adjusting to Australian medical practice and Australian culture. As a percentage of the medical workforce, Tasmania is more reliant upon IMGs than any other state or territory, with up to 40% of the workforce being composed of IMGs.

The Council provides significant support to IMGs working in Tasmanian public hospitals. This support includes orientation to the Australian Healthcare system, linkages to bodies such as the Migrant Resource Centre, dedicated teaching for IMGs in the hospitals, and occasional courses to improve both clinical and communication skills. Probably our most popular course is a practice exam course which is designed to prepare the IMG to take the Australian Medical Council Exam, which is a prerequisite for full registration as a Medical Practitioner. This course is so successful that we have many applicants from interstate and on occasion from countries such as India or Pakistan.