A Wangaratta doctor has slammed the ‘disgraceful’ deregistration of many internationally-trained doctors, saying the practice is ‘hypocrital’ as some Australian-trained doctors were ‘simply gifted’ fellowships decades ago.
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Julian Fidge, who is the Australian Country Party candidate for Ovens Valley, owns and operates two GP clinics in Wangaratta with five internationally-trained doctors.
He said over ten years he has mentored overseas doctors and seen first hand their dedication to regional communities and patients.
“No-one should believe overseas trained doctors are unsafer or less competent than their Australian-trained counterpart,” he said.
Dr Fidge said doctors practicing before the introduction of examinations to gain a Fellowship of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioner were simply ‘grandfathered’ fellowship titles if they had five years experience as a GP.
Gaining the fellowship is a requirement of becoming a GP.
A spokeswoman for the Medical Board of Australia and the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency would not comment on the practice on ‘grandfathered’ fellowships. The federal Health Department and RACGP were contacted for comment.
A Health Department document confirms between 1989 and 1995, medical practitioners already practising in general practice who met the eligibility criteria could apply to be grandfathered on to the newly introduced vocational register.
While a timeline on the RACGP confirms doctors were registered via grandfathering in 1989.
The AHPRA spokeswoman said more than 25 per cent of fully-registered doctors in Australia were mainly trained internationally.
The spokeswoman said international doctors with ‘limited registration’ can renew this registration three times.
She said the standard for registration had not changed, but some international medical graduates had renewed three times and now needed to apply for full registration and meet national standards.
However Dr Fidge believes some doctors support the deregistration of internationally-trained doctors had not passed advanced exams themselves.
“Most of the people who are insisting that overseas trained doctors should pass the advanced exams are quite possibly the biggest hypocrites in the world,” Dr Fidge said.
“The same doctors who are supporting the de-registration of doctors for not passing the advanced exams are most unlikely to be able to pass the same examinations themselves, despite decades more experience."
Dr Fidge said the way regionally-based international doctors were treated was a disgrace and it was a miracle any passed the exams.
He said for those on working visas being deregistered means packing up their homes, families and leaving the country.