ANZCA warns of risks in fast-tracking specialist international medical graduates (SIMGs)
17 October 2024
The college has called for an immediate pause in government plans to fast-track the registration of overseas-trained doctors.
ANZCA has issued a media release and written to all Australian health ministers (and senior government bureaucrats) about a proposal by federal medical regulators to expedite the process for SIMGs to practice in Australia without rigorous clinical oversight by medical colleges.
The college provided a college update in mid-September on the proposed expedited SIMG registration pathway, located here.
The college continues to hold considerable concerns about this proposed pathway which is scheduled in late October 2024 for general practitioners and December 2024 for three other specialties including anaesthesia. These concerns relate in particular to the lack of available information and ANZCA’s limited involvement in developing the proposal.
Given the limited detail and the widespread concerns shared by medical colleges for patient safety and quality of care which must remain the central priority, the college has called for an urgent pause to the federal government’s proposal.
This SIMG issue has attracted strong media coverage, based on ANZCA’s media release and associated print, online and radio exposure. This has included the Herald Sun, Daily Telegraph, Courier Mail, Adelaide Advertiser, NT News, Hobart Mercury, Cairns Post, Gold Coast Bulletin, Townsville Bulletin and AusDoc.
ANZCA’s president Professor David Story has had a radio presence talking about this issue on ABC Radio Brisbane, ABC Radio Melbourne Drive, ABC Radio Perth Drive, 2GB in Sydney, 3AW Melbourne and 5AA Adelaide, as well as an interview with ABC Radio National (RN) Drive.
The Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP) has provided similar media release and news items on this topic – here are the Sep and Oct media releases, and Sep and Oct news items.
Initial advice recently received from the Medical Council of New Zealand is that a similar process to obtain registration in the provisional vocational scope of practice in New Zealand will go live on 1 November 2024. We are yet to receive any further detail on the process or next steps.
ANZCA will continue to monitor developments in the coming weeks and months, in parallel, planning for the pathway’s implementation accordingly. We will provide information to our fellows, trainees and SIMGs when we have further information or updates.