Faced with few other alternatives, in the last two years Dr Rodney Catton has tried and failed to bring doctors from overseas to work at his practice in Far North Queensland.

But despite contracts being signed, their recruitment in each case was kyboshed by the PESCI clinical exam.

Here, he argues the problem lies not with the quality of his doctors.

I’ll be 75 years old in a couple of months, and I’m still working at least 50 hours a week as a GP.