Australian patients are benefiting from a surge of overseas doctors plugging healthcare gaps after an end to in-person identity checks. or signup to continue reading Regulators had previously required the checks, forcing international doctors to arrive in Australia and wait on paperwork for months, frustrating them and hospitals in dire need of their expertise. The removal of that impost in December is already delivering results, with new data showing registrations of overseas qualified doctors surging 25 per cent in the first six months of 2024.
Wait times decreased by the same amount. Launceston specialist GP Sana Mahmud, who emigrated from Pakistan to Australia in 2012, said international doctors provided incredible value to the healthcare system. Four in five junior doctors in Tasmania's healthcare system were from overseas, she said.
"We know there are gaps in the Australian healthcare system," Dr Mahmud told AAP. "We are short-staffed, and the wait time from being seen by a general practitioner and then to be referred to (and seen in) the hospital can vary from weeks to months to up to a year." Now , Dr Mahmud recalls arriving in Australia excited for her new job only to be stuck waiting at least two months for her application to be processed.
"The hospital was very supportive at that time, and I tried to submit all the paperwork," Dr Mahmud said. "But because I was already residing in Australia, it was a bit hard for me to get some of the documents from back home certi.