A new report claims that Australia has too many GPs and needs to cut down on the number of overseas practitioners arriving to work in the country.
According to a study carried out earlier this year by the Centre for Population and Urban research at Monash University, since 2006 there has been ‘sharp increase’ in the numbers of GPs working in Australia, and the level of GP services currently being provided is well above the level needed.
“The recruitment of further international medical graduates (IMGs) from overseas on limited registration to GP and hospital doctor positions should cease,” the report stated. “There is no need for more limited-registration IMGs, yet the numbers being sponsored on 457 visas is surging – reaching 2,633 in 2011-12.”
The report continued: “There has been a sharp increase in the number of full-time-work-equivalent GPs billing on Medicare since the mid-2000s. The level of GP services in both metropolitan and non-metropolitan is well above that considered by the medical manpower authorities in the past to be adequate.”
However, according to pulsetoday.co.uk – a British site dedicated to GPs – Health Workforce Australia has rejected the report’s findings, stating that the research is based on out-of-date figures.