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Australian federal government funding supports rural initiatives RACS successful in securing $850,000 for project The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) advocates for communities to have equitable access to quality healthcare—irrespective of geography. The Rural Health Equity Steering Committee was formed to tackle issues surrounding equitable access to quality healthcare. Their aim is to deliver the Rural Health Equity Strategy (RHES) as a proposed pathway for training specialists so everyone can have equitable access to healthcare. The RHES activity has been off to a roaring start in 2022. After establishing a governance structure and conducting significant stakeholder engagement activities in 2021, this year we start delivering on strategic actions. A big win for the College, which will significantly help our delivery, is the announcement of a successful funding proposal under the Australian Department of Health’s new Flexible Approach to Training in Expanded Settings (FATES) scheme. RACS was successful in securing $850,000 over two years to fund the project Rural Accreditation – Addressing Barriers to Rural Specialist Training. This project will address barriers to hospital training post accreditation in rural hospitals with the aim of increasing rural specialist training and practice pathways. RACS and the Royal Australasian College of Medical
Administrators (RACMA) will partner to form a consortium to undertake a significant review of RACS accreditation criteria and processes, including extensive engagement with internal and external stakeholders. The objectives of the project include: • understanding the barriers that rural hospitals face in applying for and meeting hospital training post accreditation standards • creating a ‘supporting evidence’ resource to assess performance against hospital training post accreditation standards, within a rural context.
The Northern Territory and the Victorian Department of Health were both supportive in the application for funding. RACS intends to work with both the governments, the regional training hubs, and rural hospitals as part of the external consultation process. The project and its deliverables were designed to meet not only the recommendations under the RHES, but also the recently released 2021-31 National Medical Workforce Strategy (NMWS) by the Australian Federal Department of Health. The strategy is the result of significant collaboration and input from key medical stakeholders across Australia.
