But it isn't as if the demand for doctors trained overseas, including India, is going to taper overnight. As Queensland premier Peter Beatie told national TV channel ABC, "We will continue to attract overseas doctors because Australia did not train enough of their own doctors in the 1970s and 1980s, so we have to...we have no choice." State health minister Stephen Robertson concurred. "There are towns throughout Australia that if it wasn't for an overseas-trained GP deciding to locate there, that community, whether in Queensland or outback New South Wales or Western Australia, simply wouldn't have any doctor," Robertson said recently.
The problem, says Australian Doctors Trained Overseas Association (ADTOA) president Andrew Schwartz, is that standards have been compromised in the rush to overcome the shortfall. "The vetting procedures need to be tightened, so long as they don't go overboard (with it)," says Schwartz. "India has some of the finest educational institutions in the world and the ones (doctors) who come here are those who have usually proven themselves in the United Kingdom first." Dr Orekondy says the problem arises because doctors such as Haneef, coming to Australia on a temporary work visa, are not checked for their antecedents as stringently as those overseas medical practitioners who move here permanently.
The ADTOA estimates there are 20,000 practising doctors in Australia who earned their original qualifications overseas—about 40 per cent of the total 50,000 doctors in the country. A substantial percentage of this should be Indians. More than half of Queensland's rural doctors are trained overseas. Schwartz believes the rate of adverse medical outcomes by overseas-trained doctors is no higher than for Australian-trained doctors. In a crisis situation, though, no one looks at statistical details; public opinion is usually a case of perception. This is why a resigned Orekondy says, "We have decided to move forward with another media blitz to counter the bad press—just like we did two years ago."
