8 NEWS
8 NEWS
19 SEPTEMBER 2025 ausdoc. com. au
IMGs, we need you, at a cost
ANALYSIS Paul Smith
They keep Australia’ s health system afloat, but why do we treat our IMGs so badly?
IF the AMA has its numbers correct, more than half of all GPs are now IMGs, a statistic that raises once more the question about Australia’ s dependency on overseas-trained doctors to keep the doors of its health system open.
The figure is included in a new report by the AMA, which says the political push to improve support systems for IMGs in the wake of the landmark Lost in the Labyrinth report more than a decade ago has floundered.
The subtext is that, yes, IMGs, we need you, but we will still treat you mean.
The recruitment of overseas-trained doctors is“ entrenched and compounding”, fuelled by the desperation to staff rural and outer-metro hospitals and GP practices, says the report, called The Experiences of Australia’ s International Medical Graduates.
On one level, such statements could be read as surprising, because much of the report covers the actual demands placed on IMGs to make it.
And as we know, these demands involve much time, money and misery. Surely that limits supply?
This is not just the English language tests, the qualification checks, the clinical assessments, the work under supervision or the dependency( via the 482 visa) on your employer’ s goodwill for your continued existence in Australia.
It is also about what life can be like in
isolated communities with little support in an alien land.
“ In some cases, they are the only individual of their nationality within the
community, further intensifying their sense of separation,” the report notes.
But the report does acknowledge why so many doctors are willing to make the leap, and it is about Australia beyond its bureaucracy— its thriving economy, its natural beauty, its beaches, its work – life balance and the fact that the Australian health system is actually world class.
‘ It is broadly considered that the NHS in the UK is breaking as Australia continues to poach its doctors.’
It also points to cash: the junior doctors earning between $ 80,000 and $ 140,000 a year, the GPs earning $ 180,000- $ 350,000 and the non-GP specialists in the $ 210,000- $ 400,000 income bracket.
However, the report’ s final point is one that does not get discussed so much by the politicians— state, territory or federal— desperate to staff those hospitals and GP practices.
The section is headlined“ Australia’ s ethical and moral considerations in recruiting IMGs”.
It suggests most of Australia’ s IMGs are being recruited from India, a developing country with a population of more than a billion people and its own medical shortages of more than 600,000 doctors.
“ This situation raises the question of whether Australia’ s reliance on IMGs is consistent with Australia’ s obligations as a responsible global citizen, particularly as Australia has the ability to train doctors domestically through its world-class medical education system,” it says.
It even sounds a note of sympathy for the so-called mother country— that other significant source of medical labour— amid its chastened times in a post-colonial, post- Brexit world.
“ It is broadly considered that the NHS in the UK is breaking as Australia continues to poach its doctors.
“ This raises the question of whether this action is consistent with our responsibilities as a global citizen and how the recruitment of IMGs must acknowledge the broader global context.”
This is all very worthwhile, but then the report adds qualifiers to the ethical discussion— the needs and experiences of IMGs themselves.
Some IMGs are coming to Australia to flee war and persecution, it says, to escape suppression of individual rights, particularly for female doctors, and simply to improve the prospects for both themselves and their families.
And that final point, it suggests, even applies to UK doctors, with the British Medical Association declaring they are“ underpaid, under-appreciated and under pressure”.
Australia, while imperfect, offers an alternative during these dark times.
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