The Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP) has said health ministers must take all responsibility for anything that goes wrong with their rushed process to implement an expedited pathway for overseas-trained medical specialists.
This follows an announcement that health ministers have approved an expedited pathway under which the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) will assess the suitability of overseas-trained doctors to practice in Australia, starting next Monday 21 October. Since 2005, suitability to practice in Australia has been assessed by the relevant specialist medical college.
The RACGP strongly opposes the move and has called for a stay on the proposal, having raised doubts about the regulator's readiness and suitability for this task.
The College has also emphasised 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 the process has failed to allay the concerns of the RACGP and other colleges.
"We've been clear about the problems with this rushed approach, including significant risks to patient safety and quality of care. The blame for anything that goes wrong must be on the decision makers behind it," she said.
"Australia's health ministers and Ahpra have pushed this through regardless of the major risks, unanswered questions, and lack of detail about how a GP's suitability to practice will be assessed, just a week before it's due to be implemented. We all hope it will work as planned, but you don't guarantee the safety of patients and wellbeing of doctors with hope, you need appropriate processes.
"The RACGP engaged with Ahpra in an attempt to mitigate risks, and strongly opposes this approach. We have simplified and sped up processing for overseas specialists, while keeping high standards to ensure patient safety.
"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.
"GPs shouldn't be thrown into situations they are not ready to manage without the support of a college. We've seen failure to diagnose hypertension, inappropriate prescribing of opioids and unsafe management of critical hyperglycaemia, and inappropriate management of pain in a cancer patient.
"These are issues that appropriate supervision will pick up. We know because the RACGP provides this through tested processes. We are not confident this expedited pathway will provide the same quality of care for patients and support for doctors.
"Health Ministers and Ahpra must now take full responsibility for managing any doctors who are in difficulty or at risk professionally or to patients.
"It's perverse that the same body that will manage this process, Ahpra, may soon be investigating the doctors it assesses as safe to practice based on paperwork alone. It's not just patients that deserve better, doctors moving here to care for our communities do, too."
