The Chairperson of the National Rural Health Alliance, Nicole O’Reilly, welcomed the review of regulatory settings for health professionals that would enable overseas-trained doctors to start working in Australia more quickly.
Speaking to The Guardian, Ms O’Reilly stressed the need to improve access to services in rural and remote areas while ensuring public safety standards were maintained.
‘The processes related to overseas-trained health professionals should be designed to filter for quality and safety rather than test perseverance and persistence,’ she said.
‘We would hope that rural and remote Australia is afforded the opportunity to benefit from it as well,’ Ms O’Reilly said.
Hundreds of foreign-trained doctors living in Australia were unable to work during the pandemic due to a complex and rigorous system of approving international medical graduates to work locally, The Guardian reports.
Consequently, a rapid review of regulatory settings will take place, independently led by the former New South Wales health secretary Robyn Kruk.