Medical deans say government claims about IMGs’ FTE hours don’t stack up, warning Australia’s reliance risks ‘brain drain’ from source countries that can least afford to lose them.
Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand (MDANZ) has doubled down on its calls for a transparent national medical workforce plan and sustained funding for medical schools.
MDANZ chief executive Anita Hobson-Powell told The Medical Republic that while IMGs are greatly valued, they should not be the default structure for the medical workforce.
“Unfortunately, the department believes that IMGs are the better investment path rather than the domestic workforce, and I don’t think many Australians in the medical workforce share that view,” she said.
Rather, it’s a perspective she said she’d like to challenge.
Full-time equivalent (FTE) data would suggest that IMGs work more hours per week than domestic doctors, Ms Hobson-Powell told TMR.
A Department of Health supply and demand study of general practitioners in Australia reported that while GPs who obtained their initial medical qualification overseas made up only 43% of the workforce in 2023, they accounted for 54% of the total GP FTE in the same period.
But this data is informed by Medicare billing data to determine hours – a gap the report itself conceded.
“IMGs are on visas which require them to work a minimum of 38 hours a week, whereas Australian doctors have more of a portfolio career,” she said.
“[Domestic doctors] might work one or two days per week in private practice, then a bit in a hospital or university, or they might spend a day on research. They are definitely working more than FTE; it’s just not all billed under Medicare, and that’s the difference.”
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The current bottlenecks in the medical training pipeline are projected to result in a shortage of more than 12,800 full-time equivalent GP and non-GP specialist doctors by 2048, according to the Department of Health’s whole of medical workforce compendium report.
But unblocking the medical student jam would require repairs across the board, Ms Hobson-Powell said.
First, there needs to be a stronger emphasis on selecting students from MM5–MM7 locations to study medicine, as these individuals are more likely to return to and work in these communities.
While UCAT and GAMSAT scores are essential for entry into medicine, universities could consider alternatives – such as portfolios for students who may not have scored highest but could become excellent doctors with proper training, Ms Hobson-Powell said.
More funding for vocational specialist training places and additional accredited locations in areas with prevalent workforce gaps is also needed, she told TMR.
But this must also be matched with investment in training infrastructure and supervision, MDANZ president Professor Kirsty Forrest said.
Most recently, Townsville’s James Cook University (JCU) – which does not use the GAMSAT or UCAT for entry – was omitted from the 50 new Commonwealth-supported places for aspiring doctors prioritising primary care that were announced earlier this month, despite 52% of its graduates joining the Australian GP Training Program.
Another complexity, Ms Hobson-Powell noted, is that domestic registrars seeking to enter specialist pathways must be willing to relocate to underserved communities, which are otherwise already reliant on sponsored IMGs to fill workforce gaps.
“This is not a sustainable long-term strategy. It leaves Australia exposed to global competition for medical talent, and it raises genuine ethical questions when so many of the doctors we depend on come from health systems that can least afford to lose them,” Professor Forrest said.
According to November 2025 AHPRA data, only 46% of 9072 first-time medical registrants from 2024 to 2025 were domestic graduates.
Many migrants trained overseas came from low- and middle-income countries, where shortages are often worse than in Australia, potentially leading to ‘medical brain drain ’, which conflicts with clause 3.6 of the WHO Code.
“We have an obligation, both to our own health system and to our international partners, to build a medical workforce that is largely self-sufficient,” Professor Forrest said.
