Basic Physician Training in the Greater Western Consortium

2012 EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

 The Greater Western Consortium of Basic Physician Training (GWC) provides rotations at Western Health (Western Hospital, Sunshine Hospital, Williamstown Hospital), Melbourne Health (The Royal Melbourne Hospital), and Ballarat Health Service, with additional rural rotations to Albury Wodonga Health (Wodonga Campus) and Northeast Health Wangaratta 

Western Health offers a diversity of clinical experience through its three campuses involved in basic physician training.  Western Hospital is a tertiary referral hospital with a Professional department of medicine.  Sunshine Hospital is a large, expanding general hospital whilst Williamstown Hospital is smaller and community based.  Both Sunshine and Williamstown provide a range of acute and subacute medical services.

BPT Training Activities at Western Health include:

• Unit-based and departmental meetings, e.g. "Cardiology Updates" on Monday mornings, monthly Respiratory Grand Rounds, medical Grand Rounds on Friday mornings and twice-weekly clinical tutorials at Sunshine Hospital, and weekly Professorial Reports;
• The medical HMO education program on Thursday lunchtimes, video conferenced between Western Hospital and Sunshine Hospital;
• Short and long case tutorials and mock FRACP examinations in the months preceding the clinical exams.  In 2011, there were exchanges of trainees for these activities between Western Health and Melbourne Health to increase the range of patients encountered and to simulate real examination conditions more closely; and MCQ tutorials and techniques of clinical case presentation tutorials pre written;
• The Consortium tutorial program for the written FRACP examinations.  For the 2011 examinations, this ran from November 2010 to March 2011.  All tutorials are video conferenced between all Consortium sites.

BPT Rotations at Western Health

While there is some intermixing of rotations, BPT2 and BPT3+ trainees at Western Health follow different rotation plans.

BPT2s
For BPT2s, internal rotations are predominantly in the medical specialties with a smaller number of rotations in General Medicine.  External rotations are to Melbourne Health, Ballarat Health Services and Albury Wodonga Health (Wodonga Campus). 

All trainees are required to complete a rural (Ballarat or Wodonga) rotation, a Relieving rotation and/or a Specialty Medicine Night rotation - but not all three - in a year.  External and Rural rotations are placed in the first half of the year to minimise disruption to formal FRACP examination preparation activities.

BPT3s

For BPT3 doctors, internal rotations are predominantly in General Medicine with a smaller number of rotations in the medical specialties.  External rotations are placed in the second half of the year to minimise disruption to formal FRACP examination preparation activities.

To ensure that Trainees are able to experience a broad range of internal medicine, rotations are available in the specialities listed below:

Aged Care
Ballarat (General Medicine & Medical Specialities)
Cardiology (WH & RMH)
Gastroenterology
General Medicine (WH & RMH)
ICU (RMH only)
Nephrology (WH & RMH)
Neurology
Oncology (WH & RMH)
Palliative Care
Relieving
Respiratory Medicine
Special Medicine Nights
Wodonga (General Medicine)

With a variety of rotations available, trainees are able to experience a broad range of general and subspecialty medicine.  All basic physician trainees are required to undertake a rural, a relieving and/or a 'nights' rotation.  All rotations are distributed among trainees as equitably as possible.

PLEASE NOTE: Interviews will take place at Western Health over a 2-week period commencing 16 August 2011.

For further information on the GWC and the recruitment please go to:
http://www.gwconsortium.com.;au/recruitment.aspx

For any specific enquiries please contact:     Lucy O'Brien, Manager Greater Western Consortium via 
       (03) 8345 7195
or 
                    lucy.obrien@wh.org.au

Basic Physician Trainee BPT2 positions are offered through the PMCV BPT2 Computer matching service
http://computermatching.pmcv.com.au

Dates to Remember:

• PMCV Online Registration Opens - Monday 18th April 2011
• PMCV Online Registration Closes - Wednesday 10th August 2011
• Hospital Application Close - Monday 15th August 2011
• Interview Period Commences - Tuesday 16th August 2011
• PMCV Match Results Released - Monday 12th September 2011
• Start of 2012 Recruitment Year - Monday 6th February 2012