Staffing crisis in preclinical medicine

The proportions of medical graduates on the staffs of the preclinical departments of Australian medical schools have declined dramatically in recent years. It is now extremely difficult to attract medically qualified applicants to positions in these departments. The present proportions of medically qualified staff now fall short of the levels regarded as "educationally desirable" by Australian preclinical departmental chairmen, at a time when the curricula of most of our medical schools are being reformed so as to include more medically relevant courses in the preclinical disciplines. The cause of the problem is that there are serious disincentives, of both salary and career prospects, to the choice of a career in preclinical medicine. Methods of removing these disincentives are discussed in this paper.