Crook addresses Parliamentary Committee on regional doctor shortage
Author: Tony Crook
Published on: 23-August-2011
Nationals WA Federal Member for O’Connor Tony Crook MP has today addressed the Parliamentary Committee on Health and Ageing as part of an inquiry into overseas-trained doctors.
Mr Crook said bureaucratic red tape was preventing overseas-trained doctors from practising in Australia.
“This has left regional areas with a critical undersupply of GPs.
“Attracting overseas doctors has been raised as one of the most important issues by local governments across my electorate.
“WA has the highest proportion of overseas-trained doctors per capita in Australia, yet has 15 per cent fewer doctors per capita than any other State,” Mr Crook told the Committee.
Mr Crook said between 2000 and 2008, the WA Medical Board received an average of 120 applications per year from overseas-trained doctors.
“Since the implementation of the national assessment program in 2008, the number of applications has plummeted from 120 to just 24 each year.
“Clearly there is an issue with red-tape when you look at those figures.”
Mr Crook told the Committee it is vital that Australia maintains the highest level of entry standards for doctors practising in Australia.
“We need to find a compromise between the restrictions and the onerous assessment process that overseas-trained doctors must undertake, while still maintaining the highest standards.”
Mr Crook said increasing the number of assessment days for overseas-trained doctors could help to alleviate this burden.
“To my knowledge, there are currently hundreds of overseas-trained doctors on the waiting list to be assessed to practise in Australia, yet the Australian Medical Council only holds assessments four times each year.”
Mr Crook said information he had received from Rural Health West indicated there were currently 62 vacancies for GPs in rural and remote WA.
Mr Crook also highlighted to the committee the results of a survey undertaken by The Nationals WA – showing that 46 regional local government areas had a doctor shortage, and 52 regional local governments were providing financial incentives to attract and retain GPs.
“The doctor shortage is the biggest single issue in keeping our regional communities vibrant and sustainable,” Mr Crook said.
“People don’t leave the regions because the roads are no good; they leave because they can’t access basic health services.”
Mr Crook is a former Chairman of the Royal Flying Doctor Service Western Operations, and as the Member for O’Connor he represents more than 900,000 square kilometres of regional Western Australia and 43 local government areas in Canberra.
See this article on the member's website