STARS of the ER:
Emergency Medicine Specialist Training
Pindara Private Hospital has a strong connection with
Emergency Medicine. In 1987, Pindara was the first private
hospital in Australia to open an Emergency Department and
is now the only private hospital on the Gold Coast accredited
by the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine to
provide emergency medicine specialist training.
E
mergency medicine is a relatively new specialty,
having only been recognised as a principal
specialty in Australia in 1993, despite having
been in existence in some form since the dawn of
man. However, it is one of the fastest growing areas
of medicine – with hospitals seeing over seven million
emergency department attendances each year in Australia
and New Zealand.
It was this growth, and high demand for emergency
medicine specialists, that prompted the Federal
Government to create funding for selected hospitals to
put training programs in place that would ensure a strong
supply of highly trained professionals in the area.
So what does it take to become a facility trusted with the
training of the Gold Coast’s next generation of emergency
medicine specialists?
Pindara’s Director of Emergency Medicine, Dr Ben Walters
oversees the training program at Pindara and is tasked with
ensuring the program’s quality and rigour.
“It is no small task putting together a specialist training
program; it took us around three years to get ours up and
running. Numerous elements need to come together at the
right time and in the right place to create a good program.
“We needed to ensure we had the appropriate facilities and
resources; a high level of clinical care, opportunities for
specialist referral, depth of learning experiences, available
teaching and supervisory staff… just to name a few,”
Dr Walters said.
To establish a training program such as this, the program and
hospital undergoes an initial accreditation process with the
Australasian College of Emergency Medicine (ACEM) –
the governing body who puts the framework in place for
specialist training and grants fellowship. Once accredited,
the College will then undertake a review of the facility
and program every five years to ensure both the program
quality and facility still meets requirements.
The program at Pindara has so far proved quite successful
with four registrars obtaining fellowship since the training
program began in 2014.
Obtaining fellowship is no mean feat for would-be
specialists. The training required for fellowship is rigorous
and intense, spanning over a four-and-a-half to five year
term. Registrars must first pass an entrance exam before
being accepted into an accredited program.
On passing their primary exam, registrars are generally
assigned to undertake their training at a large public
facility, in our case the Gold Coast University Hospital,
but have the opportunity to apply to undertake part of their
training at smaller accredited hospitals such as Pindara.
The training program consists of structured training
and education, work-place based assessments, research
projects, examinations and internships in specified areas
10 Pindara Magazine ISSUE 14 | 2018