Contact: Cameron Rowe
Wednesday, September 15, 1999.
DELUGE OF DOCTORS FOR COUNTRY VICTORIA - ROB KNOWLES
More than 800 overseas-trained doctors have applied to live and work in country Victoria as a result of the State Government’s innovative world-wide recruiting campaign, the Health & Aged Care Minister, Rob Knowles said today.
The success of Victoria’s campaign could be used as the blueprint to address the chronic shortage of rural doctors right around Australia, he said.
Mr Knowles said the first doctor recruited “on the ground” was working at the Stawell Medical Centre, and the rest of Victoria’s 100 rural General Practitioner vacancies were in line to be filled by Christmas. The Stawell doctor had been previously working temporarily in the town, but Victoria’s scheme addresses his long-term future.
“Some 70 of the 827 applicants have qualifications which are fully recognised by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners or need some further study to reach equivalent status,” Mr Knowles said.
“Victoria will be able to fill the rest of its target from the many capable applicants who will be able to immediately begin working as doctors in our country towns while they undertake further education and examinations to meet the qualification requirements of the College.
“When Victoria has filled its vacancies I intend talking to the Commonwealth and my counterparts in the other States as to how we went about solving what had been an ongoing rural health problem for more than a decade.
“There will be more than 700 disappointed applicants who have expressed their desire to live and work in country Victoria, and I would be looking at making their details available to the Commonwealth and the other States.
“While they will have missed out on moving to our wonderful Victoria, I am sure that one of the other Australian States would be a suitable consolation prize for them.”
Mr Knowles said the Victorian campaign was made possible through Commonwealth initiatives to facilitate permanent residency and issue Medicare provider numbers to overseas-trained doctors in rural areas.
“As a result Victoria set out to promote itself around the world as an ideal place for specialist GPs to live and work, and we have reaped the benefits,” he said.
Mr Knowles said the Victorian Government advertised in newspapers and medical journals in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, the United States, Ireland and Canada, as well as Australia, and also welcomed expressions of interest from suitably-qualified doctors from other countries.
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A detailed Internet site - - has been set up to promote the advantages of living and working in Victoria.
Doctors who are accepted are required to sign an undertaking to practise in designated rural areas for six years.
Mr Knowles said the Government is not hiring the doctors, but in conjunction with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and Rural Workforce Agency Victoria, is putting them in contact with rural communities which were seeking GPs. The doctors and communities can then come to an arrangement to fill the vacancies.
“The campaign is recruiting experienced specialist GPs, who will be part of an exciting new era of health and wellbeing in country Victoria,” Mr Knowles said.
“The benefits and rewards of living and working in a rural atmosphere are obvious, particularly in a State like Victoria.”
Authorised by G. J. G Kennett, Premier of Victoria, 1 Treasury Place, Melbourne 3002
Media inquiries:
Serena Williams, Press Secretary 9651 5799; 0419 897 858.
Graeme Walker, Human Services Department Media Unit 9616 7296.
Internet:
(F:press99/ Overseas800 /gw/14.9.99)