A Far South Coast doctor is calling for help to improve the shortage of general practitioners in rural and regional areas.
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It can be more than a week's wait to see a GP in the Eurobodalla shire and clinics were closing down due to lack of doctors, says Dr Gurdeep Singh Bagari, who is advocating for an easy solution.
Dr Bagari runs the Narooma and Tuross Heads Medical Centres, and is also in the process of establishing a Bega Medical Centre.
Last month, the Bombala Medical Centre was on the brink of closure. Dr Bagari and another GP from Bega travel fortnightly to keep health services alive in the small town.
"There are multiple other clinics which are closing down due to lack of doctors," he said.
He believes doctors could be doing more to help with the shortage.
"There are 22 doctors in Cooma who are an hour away from Bombala, why can't one doctor go to Bombala and provide services for one day a month?
"That would solve the issue."
According to the NSW Rural Doctors Network there are currently eight GP vacancies in the Bega Valley Shire and another three in the Eurobodalla.
To help get more doctors in rural communities, Dr Bagari wants the government to focus on the placement of international medical graduates.
He said a more streamlined process should be in place for hiring international medical graduates to rural practices.
Dr Bagari started a petition last week, asking the government to get rid of a "time-consuming" and "unnecessary" interview international graduates must sit before finding a job - the pre-employment structured clinical interview (PESCI).
His petition has already received almost more than 430 signatures.
PESCI is an additional step for international graduates to complete, following the gruelling AMC examination which focuses on essential medical knowledge.
"Once international graduates have been evaluated as equivalent to Australian graduates, why are they being asked for another interview to apply for a position?" he said.
"Even after the tough AMC exam, which has a low pass rate, they are asked to appear in PESCI, where the waiting time to get a position for this interview is about six months.
"It is too tough and too much waiting time."
It's like it's a double-standard
- Dr Gurdeep Bagari
The difficulty doesn't end after the interview. Dr Bagari said rural doctors prefer to employ Australian graduates to receive the supervisors incentive.
"International graduates can't get a job because they can't get a supervisor," he said.
"Doctors in regional areas only want to supervise Australian graduates because they get payment for it.
"There's no incentive for training international medical graduates. It's like it's a double-standard."
Dr Bagari said rural practices and doctors needed financial support. He said older GPs were retiring and no-one was filling their shoes.
"Most of them own the surgeries and are planning to close down the surgeries," he said.
"Corporate surgeries are not coming to regional areas, they are more interested in areas of a high population and churn-and-earn, walk-in clinics where GPs sit there and take walk-in patients only.
"That is not the case in regional areas where the doctor has to create a relationship with patients and provide services over the years, not just a once-off consultation."
Dr Bagari said rural areas need GPs who are willing to stay long-term.
"We need GPs who are going to stay for at least three years," he said.
To improve the GP shortage, Dr Bagari wanted to see a a five-year moratorium for Australian graduate doctors' placement in rural areas.
"Australian graduates come for about six months to get an idea of what the rural practice is, but after their training is over, most of them move back to metropolitan areas," he said.
"There's no obligation for them to work in regional areas."
He also wanted to see an equal incentive for the supervisors of international graduates and a focus on their placements in rural and regional areas.
"The Rural Doctor Network should be empowered to make a list of international medical graduates who are available, depending on their experience and expertise, so they can match them with doctors' availability in rural areas," Dr Bagari said.
"For practices needing specialists, they could contact the Rural Doctors Network and request from the list.
"At least 100 doctors who are Australian residents and have cleared their exam, are ready and available to start work immediately."
Dr Bagari said international specialist doctors were also wanting to work but waiting to sit the PESCI.
"They are sitting here wanting to work in regional areas, happy to sign a five-year contract," he said.
"They are Australian citizens with no work restrictions, waiting to work.
"Once they stay for five years, they are likely to stay forever."
Dr Bagari has trained five doctors over the past three years and encouraged other doctors to help also: "If I can do that, other doctors can."
To help Dr Bagari pledge for more qualified doctors to work in rural and regional Australia, you can sign his petition - CLICK HERE.
