News
Australia registers record influx of overseas doctors
But with many relocating to escape their local healthcare systems, the RACGP fears what the future may hold should Australia follow a similar path.
Around 50% of doctors who registered to practice in Australia last financial year were educated internationally.
Overseas-trained doctors are flooding to Australian shores at a greater rate than ever before, with a record number taking up positions in every state and territory.
According to new Commonwealth data, 4699 doctors from overseas have registered to practice in Australia in the first 10 months of this financial year – almost double the 2991 doctors registered in 2018–19.
Half of all doctors registered to practice last financial year were educated internationally, and of those, 60% come from the United Kingdom, Ireland, India, or the Philippines.
Between July and April, newly registered doctors from overseas have begun working in:
- Australian Capital Territory: 93
- New South Wales: 1028
- Northern Territory: 60
- Queensland: 1006
- South Australia: 265
- Tasmania: 96
- Victoria: 1102
- Western Australia: 784
Federal Health and Aged Care Minister Mark Butler said the ‘boom in health workers’ represents a vote of confidence in the Australian health system; however, the RACGP has raised significant concerns.
While RACGP President Dr Nicole Higgins welcomed the diversity of the nation’s GPs, she said many of these doctors are moving to escape the UK’s NHS and fears Australia could be about to repeat the system’s mistakes.
‘The reason doctors and GPs are leaving the NHS is because they’ve been devalued and defunded to such a point that there’s no professional satisfaction and high levels of burnout,’ she said.
‘In the NHS, you’re working in a medical clinic and you only get to see your patient 15% of the time because they’re diverted to other health practitioners.
‘They’re sending the wrong message to doctors that there are other people that can do what you do with less training and less costs, and we just don’t value the education and training that it takes to become a GP.
‘With the emerging trend of NHS doctors coming to Australia, these doctors don’t want to be a refugee in one health system and then end up in another where they’re not valued or funded either.’
Ahead of the Federal Budget’s release earlier this year and the ongoing
Scope of Practice Review, the RACGP raised fears Australia was heading in this direction, pleading with the Commonwealth to ensure the nation does not repeat its ‘
significant and long-running policy failures’.
Dr Higgins said that by 2033, International Medical Graduates (IMGs) are expected to overtake domestic graduates in the general practice workforce, and this year already, there are more intern positions than graduates.
She said a long list of changes must be urgently made to begin reversing this trend, including reinstating Commonwealth funded placements for medical graduates.
‘We also need to ensure we change the curriculum of medical schools because students must have exposure to general practice at every touchpoint,’ Dr Higgins said.
‘Australia’s got one of the best health systems in the world, but the problem is it’s not funding general practice or primary care, and we need to have a big conversation around flipping the system and where we pour money.
‘Funding needs to go into general practice and primary care and move away from expensive, shiny hospitals.’
IMGs have long been an invaluable addition to Australia’s healthcare landscape, most notably in rural and regional communities.
Several policy changes have already been rolled out in a bid to cut red tape and make registration easier and life better for those GPs relocating.
Dr Higgins said she wants to ensure that for all IMGs beginning their new lives in Australia, the healthcare system they are joining remains one of the world’s best.
‘Changing countries is traumatic for anybody, and it costs a lot of money and a lot of time to relocate, and we want our RACGP members who have their primary qualification from overseas to know that they’re valued,’ Dr Higgins said.
‘We will fight for them to create a system where they’re welcomed, especially in our rural and regional areas, because if it wasn’t for internationally qualified doctors, we wouldn’t have a health system.’
Log in below to join the conversation.
IMGs international medical graduates NHS scope of practice
newsGP weekly poll
Health practitioners found guilty of sexual misconduct will soon have the finding permanently recorded on their public register record. Do you support this change?