Call for ‘stringent’ checks on overseas docs

STATE medical boards have been called upon to review screening processes for overseas doctors in a bid to boost public confidence until a national assessment program is set up.Immigration minister Kevin Andrews has written to all state and territory medical boards asking them to ensure that the “most stringent employment verification checks and qualification assessments” were available until the national program for international medical graduates was in place.

However, the Victorian and NSW medical boards had yet to receive the letters as MO went to press and defended their standards vigorously.

The long-awaited national program was expected to be in place by July 2008. AMA president Dr Rosanna Capolingua reiterated concerns the NSW government’s refusal to sign up to the scheme was holding it up (MO, 23 February).