Australian hospital leadership knew of radiology trainee problems 1 year before accreditation failure

Leadership at Canberra Hospital in Australia learned trainees were working unsupervised due to staffing issues more than a year before its radiology training program was handed a “D” rating, the Canberra Times reports.

According to internal documents obtained by the news outlet, a group of registrars met with chief medical officer Jeffrey Fletcher, MD, in February 2017 and expressed concerns they weren’t meeting training requirements. At that time, Fletcher also learned registrars were unsupervised and denied training opportunities.

The new details come weeks after an audit uncovered Canberra failed to meet 28 of the 32 criteria needed to continue training radiologists, citing the issues had “significant impact on the well-being of trainees,” according to an ABC report.

A spokeswoman from ACT Health, which oversees operations at Canberra cited a “breakdown in communication” between previous directors of training as the cause for the lack of action taken by the health system.

"ACT Health is confident that next year we will return to Level A training accreditation in the radiology department and the department has already met a number of those (The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists) RANZCR recommendations,” the spokeswoman told the Canberra Times.

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Matt joined Chicago’s TriMed team in 2018 covering all areas of health imaging after two years reporting on the hospital field. He holds a bachelor’s in English from UIC, and enjoys a good cup of coffee and an interesting documentary.

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