To the Editor: Gleason et al describe the continued tendency of hospitals to allow prevocational, newly graduated doctors to flounder as they provide the cannon fodder to keep those hospitals running.1

For about 5 years, I coordinated an education program for junior medical staff. It is a model that other areas could consider. The Northern Sydney Area Health Service — as it was then — had two primary allocation centres for junior staff, and three local secondment hospitals. During their time in Sydney, all interns at those five hospitals were required to attend a 3-hour program of education provided for them, off site, each fortnight. In the first week, half of the interns attended; the program was repeated the following week to allow the other half to attend. A separate program was developed for Postgraduate Year 2 doctors that provided day-long programs centred on a particular topic (eg, renal disease or paediatrics). Each hospital put half of their Postgraduate Medical Council of New South Wales (now NSW Institute of Medical Education and Training) funding towards the cost.

The teaching was provided by clinical staff within the area health service. The size of the area health service meant that there was an enormous pool of expertise to call on. The very size of that pool meant that we did not over-use the same keen teachers. The quality of the teaching was regularly rated as high by the doctors who attended. The off-site venue meant that time was truly quarantined. The provision of breakfast and morning tea meant an opportunity for junior medical staff to spend time with their cohort, compare experiences, complain, commiserate, and congratulate, in an informal atmosphere.

Of course senior staff — administrative and medical — would complain. However, they gradually grew used to the format, and learned to time rounds, to make allowances and to value their happier, better educated staff. Of course there were problems of all sorts, and the system was not perfect, but it signalled to junior staff that they were valuable and valued.

As Gleason et al noted:

In 2007, it is completely unacceptable to continue to see junior medical staff as “workforce”. It shames us all as senior clinicians that we have not ensured that all hospitals meet their educational and training responsibilities to these valuable members of our profession.