We are a group of international medical graduates (IMGs) from different countries, currently living in Australia and trying to gain AHPRA registration to be able to work as registered medical practitioners. Unfortunately, we can not meet one of the AHPRA requirements for registration, namely “ the recency of practice”. Our absence from clinical practice ranges from one year up to 10 years in some cases. As a consequence, we cannot secure gainful employment. In this letter we are explaining the reasons behind the problem and offering some solutions.

   

Causes for our gap in clinical practice: 

We had to attend bridging courses and sit for AMC exams. This consumed a substantial amount of time during which we could not have practised medicine in Australia or elsewhere to keep our clinical experience current. 

We had to wait for some time to be able to sit the  AMC clinical examination. The availability of clinical examination dates has been greatly affected by the pandemic over the past two years. 

We were and still are unable to go back to the country where we obtained our medical degree  for many reasons: 
The current Covid-19 situation (Safety, border closures). 
Family responsibilities. (Schools,  Safety concerns). 
Other individual considerations. 
   

Suggested solutions: 

We would like to suggest that a clear and accessible return-to-practice pathway is urgently put in place for doctors in our situation. The NHS has created multiple re-entry chances for similar cases. Please refer to  Returning to medicine for examples. In particular, medical graduates have access to foundation year 1 regardless of where they obtained their medical degree.

For IMGs who are currently living in Australia,  the “recency of practice within 3 years” requirement for registration could be waived. 

Increasing the number of jobs under supervision such as Workplace Based Assessment which is currently offered in very few hospitals across Australia . Incentives could be created for consultants to accept IMGs with supervision requirements and to help us develop a clear professional development plan. Similar incentives could be offered to hospitals to hire us. 

Addressing the dilemma of lack of supervised positions in rural areas, where the need for general practitioners is high. In contrast, supervised positions are available in the cities, but trigger a 10 year moratorium during which IMG GPs cannot practice independently unless they relocate to rural areas. We propose for the moratorium to be postponed until  after the supervised practice period. 

 

 

We are a large workforce of trained physicians that settled in this country legally and have full working rights. . The lack of a  suitable return-to-practice pathway to close our gap in clinical practice is preventing us from contributing to the growth of this country through serving the community. Ironically, Australia is addressing the shortage of doctors by importing Junior physicians from the UK. These  UK doctors are mostly IMGs who received the same training as  us, then they relocated to the UK after passing the PLAB exams (AMC  equivalent), while we endure endless obstacles here. 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-10/international-junior-doctors-uk-ireland-head-to-wa/100363784

 

We feel disadvantaged, stuck and disappointed. We can not get job offers under the current regulations. There must be something that the authority can do to help such numbers of IMGs come back to clinical practice without having to leave the country. We are ready to work, we want to help Australian people during the pandemic, we want to invest the knowledge we gained over many years of learning and training. The suggested strategies would be beneficial for the Australian Healthcare system as well as ourselves.