17/07/2026
📢AMA Council of Doctors in Training update
On Saturday, Dr Sanjay Hettige chaired the latest federal AMA Council of Doctors in Training meeting.
The meeting began by reflecting on the tragic passing of Dr Avetisyan in Tasmania. His death has again highlighted the serious and ongoing issue of fatigue for doctors, whether from travel during shifts, long shifts, or multiple evening and night shifts in a row.
This remains a national problem. Across the country, fatigue provisions are either lacking, inconsistently applied, or poorly enforced. CDT will be working to strengthen our policy on doctors’ hours of work, and we will be meeting with regulators to highlight how fatigue affects doctors across Australia and why better enforcement is urgently needed.
Medical workforce was another major focus of the meeting.
This has always been a priority for CDT, which has consistently called for an increase in specialist training positions for doctors in training so Australians can continue to receive world-class healthcare from a highly trained medical workforce.
The recent release of the Whole of Medical Workforce Supply and Demand paper has added further urgency to this issue. The medical system needs to realign quickly and scale up specialist training positions across the country.
If we do not act, Australia is projected to have an undersupply of medical specialists by 6,981 FTE by 2033.
Urgent change is needed.
Expect to hear more from CDT on this shortly.
