Specialist colleges need to provide more cultural support and flexibility for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander doctors-in-training if the ongoing paucity of Indigenous doctors in Australia is to improve, the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association (AIDA) says.
The AHPRA Annual Report for 2019-20 shows that just 0.4% of medical practitioners identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander (just over 500 doctors) – well short of the 3.3% Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander representation in the general population.
The figures come after AHPRA this year launched a five-year Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health and Cultural Safety Strategy which aims to eliminate racism from the health system, and which includes an aim of increasing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participation in the registered health workforce.
The AHPRA report shows that apart from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioners who all identify as Aboriginal under the profession’s requirements, the highest proportion of Indigenous health professionals is in paramedicine (1.6% of the workforce) followed by nursing and midwifery (1.3%).
AIDA President Dr Tanya Schramm said that despite there having been a significant increase in the number of Indigenous doctors over the past 20 years, the latest figures showed achieving parity was very difficult.
Indigenous doctors still faced a number of barriers to entering and completing specialist training, said Dr Schramm, a GP in Hobart and senior lecturer in Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander Health Education at the University of Tasmania.
Unlike many other medical graduates, they often didn’t have connections in medicine or career mentors to guide and support them.
And some junior doctors were deterred from pursuing specialist careers by systemic racism within the hospital and health system.
“That can be really difficult to deal with as an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander doctor…. and some people choose to step away from the hospital [system],“ Dr Schramm said.
She said there was also a lack of cultural support by colleges, for example, there was little understanding of Indigenous trainees’ family commitments including around ‘sorry business’.
“They are not understanding of who we are and what our needs might be – some training programs are very inflexible,” she said.
Indigenous junior doctors also often had significant financial burdens and family commitments, after starting university as mature-age students, or having children during their medical degree.
“It is sometimes hard to find the money to sit exams,” she said.
Lack of Indigenous specialists