Health department boss admits major shortfall in GP training numbers
Australia will remain reliant on IMGs until at least half of all medical graduates start entering the specialty, says Professor Brendan Murphy
The head of the federal Department of Health has acknowledged the serious shortfalls in the number of doctors now training to be GPs.
Speaking at the AMA conference last week, Professor Brendan Murphy said only a third of the 3700 medical graduates being produced each year were opting for the specialty.
“We really should be pushing at least half our medical graduates into general practice and providing that holistic community care which is the backbone of our medical system,” he said.
“A lot of our Australian medical graduates are going into metropolitan practice, and more are going into some [non-GP] specialties than perhaps we need.
