Specialist colleges will be bypassed by an additional fast-track pathway for medical registration that is being launched by the Medical Board to bring more internationally-trained medical specialists into the Australian health system.
Initially prioritising anaesthetists, obstetricians and gynaecologists and psychiatrists (as well as GPs), the new process aims to tackle severe specialist workforce shortages in Australia, through a fast track that will sit alongside the existing specialist medical college assessment system.
At its annual general meeting in Adelaide this week, the Medical Board said the new process would recognise specific overseas specialist medical qualifications and grant upfront specialist registration to eligible doctors.
“Initial conditions on their registration will be imposed as a safeguard to protect patients while the new recruits are inducted into Australia’s healthcare system,” the Board said in a statement released on 30 April.
The Board said the new process is based on the Kruk review, which explicitly recommended the creation of an alternative fast track pathway to specialist registration for eligible medical specialists from countries with comparable healthcare systems.
“Ahpra and the Board have set up a taskforce to develop the new expedited pathway and the Board is now consulting with the specialist colleges for the priority medical specialities to finalise the list of qualifications that will be the gateway to fast-track registration,” the statement noted.
Comparable qualifications
The Board said discussions with the specialist medical colleges were underway to determine which qualifications have consistently been assessed as comparable in existing college approval processes, as the basis of the new expedited process.
Speaking at the Medical Board’s annual meeting in Adelaide, former Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer Professor Brendan Murphy said the expedited specialist pathway was “essential” to address lack of access to specialist services in regional areas.
‘We do have health workforce shortages in Australia… but as always, the shortages in the medical workforce are not evenly distributed geographically or among medical specialists,’ Prof Murphy said.
‘Despite the return to pre-COVID migration levels, the shortages persist without clear evidence that the Australian training pipeline of doctors will resolve them anytime soon.
‘This is an international marketplace where we must be competitive, and we must be attractive to those doctors and other healthcare professionals who might want to come here.
‘For those doctors who are currently in the process of migrating, we should be doing everything possible to get them into clinical practice as soon as it is safe. We should do what we can to make migration to Australia attractive for those doctors who we really need to fill critical shortages in critical locations and specialties including, if necessary, subsidising some of the costs,’ he said.
No need for college assessment
Medical Board member and lead on the Board’s Specialist IMG taskforce, Dr Susan O’Dwyer, said the new fast-track pathway would be an additional route to registration for IMGs with specialist qualifications.
‘Specific qualifications would be validated and become part of a published list of eligible qualifications and, if an SIMG has a qualification on the list, they would not need to apply to the college for an assessment of their qualification,’ Dr O’Dwyer said.