A new hospital general practice teaching unit

The formation of the latest General Practice Teaching Unit in an Australian hospital is part of a national trend to teach undergraduates and post-graduates about some parts of general practice using patients separated at triage from the accident and emergency departments. Planning this unit required much negotiating between several institutions and a set of guidelines on organisational relationships was created. Innovative features of the Modbury General Practice Teaching Unit include payment of teachers to attend compulsory medical education workshops, dividing the Family Medicine Programme trainee's time between the unit and a neighbouring practice and payment of non-academic general practitioner teachers by the South Australian Government, which eliminates the risk that service interferes with teaching. The Modbury General Practice Teaching Unit is currently the only hospital based unit of this kind in South Australia.