Clinical Training Agency in New Zealand

Public Health Medicine Training Review

Public Health Medicine Training Review

The Clinical Training Agency (CTA) is reviewing its purchase of Public Health Medicine (PHM) training. Building on the strengths of the current programme, the Review aims to ensure that PHM training is a high quality, internationally comparable training programme, which is:

relevant to the future needs of the New Zealand health and disability sector
consistent with overall sector workforce development
culturally sound
attractive to potential registrars
supportive of registrars
affordable
viable

Background

The purchase of PHM training has been the responsibility of the CTA since the mid 1990’s, following its transfer from the Public Health Commission. The specification, price and volumes have had minor adjustments but have not been subject to review since 1998.

PHM training guides and prepares medical practitioners to develop competencies which will enable them to monitor the health status of the community and develop programmes that promote, improve and protect the public’s health. While not ‘clinical’ in the usual sense, PHM is focused on health outcomes, and is recognised as clinical by the Medical Council of New Zealand, “A doctor is engaged in clinical practice, if he or she assesses, diagnoses, gives advice, treats or makes reports, whether face-to-face or otherwise, with a patient, or with a group of patients or a population. This definition includes the activities of public health medicine and medical administration.”

The PHM training programme is delivered by the New Zealand Population Health Charitable Trust (the Trust), which holds a contract with the CTA for this purpose. Training standards and monitoring are set by the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine (the Faculty), a branch advisory body under the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. The Trust was created in 1998 in response to the CTA’s request for a separate contracting body that would provide separation between delivery and standards setting.

Review Process

A Review of this training programme commenced in early 2007, with the commissioning of a report by Health Outcomes International, Ltd. Their report was based on interviews and surveys of trainees, those involved in delivering the programme, and key stakeholders. The brief was to 1) evaluate the delivery of the PHM programme, 2) evaluate the outcomes of the Programme, and 3) assess the extent to which the Programme is aligned with current sector and CTA policy, strategy and directions, and to make recommendations about the future purchase direction for the programme.

Progressing from the HOI report stage of the Review, the purchasing strategy components include:

revision of the training specification, with input from an Expert Advisory Group
costing of the new specification
identification of the volume of training positions for future years
Ministry of Health’s decision on whether or not PHM training requires a contestable purchasing process
gaining budget approval
contracting
implementation
routine monitoring and audit

The aim is to have the review completed in time for a 2009 training year implementation. If this is not possible, the changes will commence in 2010.

Expert Advisory Group - Terms of Reference

This describes the role of the Expert Advisory Group, its members, and how it will operate.

Expert Advisory Group - Terms of Reference (Word, 45 KB)

Expert Advisory Group - Meeting Notes

Research Reports

Research Contributing to a Review of the Purchasing Strategy for the Public Health Medicine Training Programme (PDF, 797 KB)
Appendix D - Current Public Health Medicine Training Specification (PDF, 36 KB)

This is a report commissioned by the CTA, which
1. evaluated the delivery of the current public health medicine training programme,
2. evaluated the outcomes of the programme, and
3. assessed the extent to which the programme is aligned with current sector and CTA policy, and made recommendations about the future purchase direction for the programme.

Consultation

Consultation on the Interim Specification for Public Health Medicine Training
The Clinical Training Agency (CTA) is currently completing a Review of Public Health medicine training. The Review includes an update of the training specification document for public health registrar training. A specification describes the training services funded by the CTA.

We are inviting those who have an interest in public health medicine training to provide comments on the interim specification for the training programme.

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Page last updated: 3 March 2009