Doctors from Ireland can be "fast-tracked" to practice in Australia under new scheme

Well-credentialed medical specialists from Ireland, the UK, and New Zealand can avail of a 'fast track' program to practice in Australia starting on Monday, October 21.

The new scheme, announced by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) this week, is designed to remove "unnecessary regulatory barriers" and increase the number of specialist international medical graduates (SIMGs) seeing patients in Australia while maintaining high standards.

In June, Niamh Humphries, a lecturer at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) told AFP that 535 Irish doctors had emigrated or gotten visas to work in Australia.

Humphries labeled the figure as "significant" considering Ireland trains about 750 doctors a year.

AHPRA said this week that applicants will have to meet a list of pre-approved qualifications to enter the Expedited Specialist pathway.

Those who qualify can apply directly to Australia's Medical Board/AHPRA for specialist registration, rather than be assessed individually by a specialist college.

Specialist GPs with one of the following accepted qualifications will be eligible to apply through the new pathway from October 21:

• Membership of the Irish College of General Practitioners (MICGP) from 2009 and a Certificate of Satisfactory Completion of Specialist Training (CSCST)
• Fellowship of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (FRNZCGP) from 2012
• Membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners (United Kingdom) from 2007 and a Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT).

AHPRA noted that there are "additional strict safety checks and balances in place to make sure new specialists coming to Australia on this pathway are safe to practise.

"Specialists on the Expedited Specialist pathway must meet the same registration standards as all other specialists and doctors – including English language, criminal history, and recency of practice.

"Each SIMG on the Expedited Specialist pathway will be supervised for six months by an Australian-registered specialist, have an orientation to Australia’s health system and do mandatory cultural safety education.

"A national Medical Board committee, made up of doctors and community members, will make all registration decisions about individuals on the Expedited Specialist pathway."

Specific specialist qualifications in anaesthetics, obstetrics, and gynaecology, psychiatry will be added to the accepted list in December 2024, after a rigorous qualifications assessment process.

Jurisdictions are choosing the next specialties for the Expedited Specialist pathway, based on workforce priorities.

Not all are in support of the new scheme, with the Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP) expressing its strong opposition and calling for a stay on the proposal.

The College also emphasized that it strongly opposes simple paper-based assessments as a substitute for medical colleges’ rigorous evaluations of suitability that account for a doctor’s experience, context, training, and assessments.

RACGP President Dr. Nicole Higgins said that RACGP data shows "one in five doctors require extra education and professional support despite their qualifications being substantially comparable on paper to those of Australian GPs.

"This is why qualifications should only be part of the assessment of a medical professional’s readiness to practice in Australia."

However, Australia's Health Minister Mark Butler told ABC News: "I want to be very clear to patients and with the medical profession that we won't compromise on our very strong standards that we have here in Australia.

"For too long, highly-trained doctors from countries like the UK, Ireland and New Zealand – which have similar high-standard training as Australia – are left waiting on red tape approvals before they are able to work."