IMGs still face challenges in remote placements

The inquiry into the registration processes and support for  IMGs held its first public hearing in February last year and notched up its 22nd hearing on January 30 this year in Darwin.

Northern Territory General Practice Network clinical services adviser, Dr David Thurley, one of several GPs to give evidence at the hearing, told MPs the 10-year moratorium that bound  IMGs to rural areas while they worked toward their fellowships was failing to keep doctors in the bush.

“One of the problems with [the moratorium] is that we are making people, who are not used to the Australian system, go to the most difficult places to work,” he said.

“Once they get their fellowship… a lot of them do leave.”

Dr Thurley told the inquiry that  IMGs forced to work in remote areas faced other challenges, like finding secondary schooling options for their children, the “substandard housing” available and