Workforce crisis: Do inner-city GP practices also need IMGs?
An Adelaide practice manager says the Department of Health is being 'too bureaucratic'.
A city practice serving a major multicultural community says IMG workforce rules need more exemptions that are not purely based on geography.
The Blair Athol Medical Clinic — a 10-minute drive from Adelaide’s CBD — has 15,000 patients, with each GP responsible for around 2000 of them.
But the GP–patient ratio in the area is a few percentage points short of the threshold that would potentially secure it Distribution Priority Area (DPA) status.
“The other factor is it is a really unique area, with a very low socioeconomic demographic, that includes a lot of non-English-speaking patients, immigrants and refugees,” says practice manager Angela Lee.
