Browse > Home / News / Three GP vacancies already filled

Three GP vacancies already filled

Posted on November 19, 2009, 7:07am and updated on November 20, 2009 at 8:40 am

The positions of three of the six GPs that are leaving Mount Gambier by the end of the year have been filled, while chances of securing the services of two more GPs are good.

In the past few months four GPs have resigned from the Hawkins Medical Clinic and two GPs from the Ferrers Medical Clinic, with all of them indicating they would leave the South East with their families by the new year.

The four departing GPs at Hawkins are two husband-and-wife teams, while one of the GPs at Ferrers is leaving the region with her husband, who is a specialist at the Mount Gambier Hospital.

But Hawkins has secured the services of two GPs, one male and one female, while Ferrers has appointed one GP.

Hawkins practice manager Dale Beatty said he was confident that the two remaining vacancies could be filled early in the new year.

“We have had expression of interest from two doctors and they are now working their way through the requirement process for medical registration,” Mr Beatty said.

“The registration process has changed a lot in the past 12 to 18 months and it now much more difficult to get registration, so once they have met the requirements, we can consider them for the vacancies.”

Dr Malcolm Gale from Ferrers said the clinic was advertising locally and overseas to fill the one remaining vacancy, but he was confident the position would be filled soon.

“One of the part-time GPs at the practice is also going to increase her working hours in the new year,” he said.

Although most the recruits are already in Australia, they were born overseas.

Dr Gale and Mr Beatty said they were aware of community criticism over language communication problems with some non-English speaking GPs, but said they had no choice but to recruit overseas-born doctors until more doctors were trained locally.

“One of the changing requirements for medical registration is that doctors have to pass a stringent international language exam, so communication should not be a problem,” they said.

Tags: ,  

Comments

2 Responses to “Three GP vacancies already filled”

  1. DrNick on November 20th, 2009 1:09 pm 1

    I think you can reassure any foreign doctors that not all the inhabitants of Mount Gambier have impenetrable accents and bad grammar.
    Some of them speak quite clearly and correctly.

  2. Goresh on December 6th, 2009 10:59 am 2

    There are already thousands of foreign trained doctors living here in Australia who could fill the positions except they are working as taxi driver, brick layers etc.

    I doubt very much that many Australian trained doctors would be able to pass the required examination if they had to complete their examination in one go at the end of their course instead of having it spread across a number of years.
    The aim of a uniersity degree is not that the graduate recall every detail but rather that they be familiar enough with it’s content that many years down the track, they will recognise a circumstance they were taught during their training and know where to seek the information they need to deal with it.

    If however the AMA believes that a single, all encompassing examination is the way to go, then it should be applied to all doctors, Australian trained or Overseas on a regular basis to ensure that they remain current in their training. Maybe each five ot ten years?

Posting of new comments is currently disabled.