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The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has called on the government to make it easier for overseas-trained doctors to move to Australia to prevent the shortage of general practitioners from worsening.

The chairman of the RACGP Rural Council Teachers’ Association, Michael Clements, told the Joint Standing Committee on Migration that Australia was in fierce competition with other wealthy countries for doctors.

“We are heavily dependent on foreign-trained doctors for the foreseeable future and this is our fastest opportunity to close some of the gaps that we need the most,” he told the committee.

“And right now we’re really competing with places like Canada, New Zealand and Ireland for these foreign-trained doctors.

“So if we don’t do better, we’re actually going to fall behind.”

Australia currently faces a shortage of doctors, with the Australian Medical Association predicting a shortage of more than 10,600 doctors by 2031-32, an “unimaginable” position according to the group’s chairman, Professor Steve Robson.

“We shouldn’t be in this position, but it is clear that the short-sighted policies of successive Commonwealth governments have disappointed the people,” he said in November 2022.

Assistant Professor Clements said this problem was particularly salient in rural areas, where more than 50% of the workforce has obtained overseas medical degrees.

“We expect an excessive workload with a GPS shortage of around 11,000 GPS needed on top of what we have now over the next 10 years.”

The RACGP is calling for less bureaucracy to secure the role of overseas doctors in Australia and the removal of a moratorium that requires them to live in regional areas for 10 years before they can move to major cities.

“We believe the 10-year moratorium policy limiting foreign-trained doctors is outdated and needs to change.”

He said the government should take the ‘carrot approach’ to bringing doctors to remote areas.

“We want to see those rural and remote communities that really need these doctors to be able to provide packages, housing, couple work, childcare, everything from community hospitality, a church that matches their faith , raffle cards like that, attract doctors to their places. . have to, as opposed to compulsory forced service, which often puts doctors in places they don’t want to go,” he said.

Assistant Professor Clements said each community should see what it could offer doctors by bringing them to town, pointing to unusual bonuses such as extra time for recreational activities.

“I worked at Karumba. And if I guarantee fishing time, we will have a doctor,” he said.

“I offered a doctor a pilot’s license to come and join me in my remote town and it worked and we got the doctor right after that.

“He now has a pilot’s license.”

He urged the government to consider whether a lack of facilities such as day care centers or religious centers could also keep interested doctors away.