There has been a steady increase in the number of OTDs or overseas trained doctors who form a part of the medical force in Australia. This can be attributed to the fact that the Australian Government decided to limit the number of students who could be accepted into medical schools in the country. The decision was the result of projections in the field of
medical recruitment in Australia that indicated that the medical workforce in the country comprised a huge number of OTDs. This was the automatic result of high levels of medical training in the country and the migration of overseas trained doctors to Australia.
Eventually, it led to a situation when the doctor-to-population ratio in the country touched an all time high. In the recent times, there has been hardly any increase in the number of medical students irrespective of the rise in the population of the nation and the substantial growth in the per-capita demand of medical services.
From then onwards, there had been a substantial drop in the doctor-to-population ratio in the decade, from 1986-1996. The saturation point that resulted out of the presence of an excessive number of doctors in comparison to the medical jobs available in the country was soon balanced out. This was achieved with the help of the stance adopted by the AMWAC or the Australian Medical Workforce Advisory Council. The Council stated that the gaps in the availability of medical professionals in Australia were largely due to the inappropriate distribution of the qualified workforce and not due to a shortage in the number of trained doctors. This corroborated the governments legislation which ordained that prospective medical graduates in the country intent on working as general practitioners were supposed to complete a course in family medicine initially, before applying for
doctor jobs in Australia.
The imposition of such a restriction at the entry level for general practitioners considerably reduced the number of candidates in the field of general medical practice. This obviously led to a shortage in the number of general practitioners in the country. The lack of adequate number of trained personnel was quite apparent at the junior hospital level as there were far less number of second year interns. The decreasing numbers have automatically forced the medical establishments to look outwards and to employ OTDs or overseas trained doctors. They have become a part of the medical workforce of the country by following any of the three ways namely, as permanent resident OTDs, as temporary resident OTDs or as occupational trainees.
In Australia, each of the states has their respective medical board. When it comes to occupational trainees, the rules vary depending on the training program for which the occupational trainee enrols himself/herself or the position that he/she occupies in a general hospital. There are some specialties where the respective college makes an assessment of the credentials of the applicants. In case of a hospital employment, the assessment is made by the employer before making the appointment to ensure that the right candidate is employed.
