Funding equity for clinical placements would be win-win for health professional students and the community

cohealth is calling on all major parties in the Victorian election to support equal funding for community based placements for health professional students in primary health care settings.

A student placement is a fundamental component in a health professional’s training experience. cohealth currently provides a range of placements for different health disciplines and would welcome the opportunity to increase its ability to take on more students.

Under current arrangements the acute care setting (largely hospital-based) receive the lions-share (83%) of funding for the training and professional development of students. As most health care is delivered at the primary care level in community settings, it is important that training placements match real-world needs. All organisations – whether in the community or acute sector – must be funded in an equitable manner recognising the cost to organisations to provide quality placement experience and learning.

cohealth Chief Executive, Lyn Morgain, sees the benefits that a more equitable funding situation would clearly provide. ‘The primary health care setting in community health offers a rich learning environment for students studying in a health related field and exposes future workforce to multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary models of care to improve the healthcare needs of the community’s most vulnerable residents. It’s a win-win for all, and we would relish the opportunity to provide more students with this frontline experience,’ said Ms Morgain.

cohealth is a leading provider of community health services at more than 30 sites across Melbourne’s western, northern and inner suburbs. cohealth was formed in May this year through the merger of Doutta Galla Community Health, North Yarra Community Health and Western Region Health Centre.