International doctors make up about 40 per cent of the rural medical workforce but may be at risk of losing their jobs under the 457 visa changes.
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The Rural Doctors Association of Australia has urged the Government to assure these much-needed doctors of their continued future support in Australia, under the 457 visa changes announced yesterday.
“IMGs have been a backbone of medical care in rural and remote Australia for many years — and they will continue to be for at least the next 5 years, and probably even up to 15 years,” RDAA president Dr Ewen McPhee said.
“With IMGs still comprising approximately 40 per cent of Australia’s rural and remote medical workforce, we will continue to need IMGs in country Australia in the short and medium-term at least, and probably well into the long-term for some locations.”
The Turnbull Government has cracked down on foreign worker visas and adopted an "Australians first" approach to skilled migration, scrapping the controversial 457 visa program and announcing a much stricter replacement.
"Australian workers must have priority for Australian jobs, so we are abolishing the 457 visa, the visa that brings temporary foreign workers into our country. We will no longer allow 457 visas to be passports to jobs that could and should go to Australians," Mr Turnbull said.
The plan to scrap the 457 visa could affect medical care around Katherine.
“If it weren’t for the many dedicated and highly trained IMGs who have delivered medical care in rural and remote Australia for many years, a large number of communities would not have had access to a local doctor for decades,” Mr McPhee said.
“IMGs are highly appreciated and respected by the many rural and remote communities they serve, as well as by their Australian-trained colleagues.
“They deserve significant and increased support in their critical role, particularly at a time when they are highly concerned about what the 457 visa changes will mean for them and their families,” he said.
“Even with the very positive measures that the Federal Government has been taking to encourage more Australian-trained doctors to work in the bush, we are still a minimum of 4-5 years away from seeing the full benefits of these measures being realised.
“It will take time to deliver more of the next generation of Australian-trained doctors who are able to work unsupervised in rural and remote communities, and then it will be a slow, ongoing process of capacity building, with a gradual year-on-year increase in the number of Australian-trained doctors choosing to work in the bush.”
