The Medical Journal of Australia (MJA) has said that the area of addiction medicine is in desperate need of more doctors to train and practice in this area. Apparently there are currently 230 Fellows of The Royal Australasian College of Physicians’ Australasian Chapter of Addiction Medicine in Australia and New Zealand (AChAM). The average age of these fellows is 58 years, and there are currently just 23 trainees across the two countries.

Dr Matthew Frei, president of the AChAM believes that empathy and a streak of altruism are essential, and that it is very rewarding then you see a patient stabilise. Dr Ingrid van Beek AM, who is the current director of the Kirketon Road Centre was interviewed by the MJA. She regularly speaks to medical students about the difference they can make if they go into this area.

However, Dr van Beek said that there are three factors that discourage doctors in training from going into addiction medicine:

• There are more lucrative and prestigious specialties such as surgery and cardiology
• The area of practice, and perhaps the patients have an “image problem”, and many people are unaware of this specialty area in medicine
• The pathway is very long – doctors must already be Fellows, and do an additional 3 years training at a junior doctors wage

There is the possibility of it becoming easier for psychiatry graduates and other physicians to gain addiction medicine qualifications.

Click here for the full article from the MJA. Click here for more on what’s happening in medicine in Australia.