Overseas GPs, psychiatrists, anaesthetists and obstetricians are already being fast-tracked onto the specialist register to fill workforce holes — with no medical college scrutiny — but it will not be happening when it comes to surgeons.

Last week, the Health Minister, Mark Butler, ruled out opening up a fast-track pathway for surgeon IMGs — a decision welcomed by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS).

The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing has not explained why it has excluded surgeons from the system, a system that has been opposed by medical colleges as a risk to patient safety.

In a statement, RACS said it had advocated over the last year for the government to focus on “strengthening the [college’s] existing specialist IMG comparability pathway, rather than wholesale reform through an expedited registration process”.