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OAMGA stand about Dr Jayant Patel
Subject: ABC Pm interview about the forgin doctors
Transcript
This is a transcript from PM. The program is broadcast around Australia at 5:10pm on Radio National and 6:10pm on ABC Local Radio.
You can also listen to the story in REAL AUDIO and WINDOWS MEDIA
and MP3 formats.
Foreign doctors report increase in racism
PM - Wednesday, 6 July , 2005 18:43:29
Reporter: Ian Townsend
PETER CAVE: Queensland's so-called "Dr Death" scandal might be exposing the dark side of the public health system but it's also revealing a dark side to some patients.
Overseas-trained doctors around Australia are reporting an increase in racism.
It's got to the stage where at least one hospital has been forced to put up anti-racist posters to try to stop patients abusing the staff.
Ian Townsend reports.
IAN TOWNSEND: Several dark clouds are gathering around Queensland’s Commission of Inquiry into the Bundaberg Hospital.
Two health administrators have flagged legal action to try to have the Inquiry's head, Tony Morris QC, step aside. They're alleging he's been biased against.
The inquiry’s been grilling staff over the activities of Dr Jayant Patel and what they did about those activities. Commissioner Morris will decide tomorrow how the inquiry should proceed.
If there's been a bright side to this inquiry though, it's that it's exposed the desperate shortage of specialist doctors in the bush and possible flaws in the ways States, particularly Queensland, hire foreign doctors on temporary visas to fill areas of need. This scrutiny should eventually lead to a better system of vetting doctors employed this way.
But there's also a dark side to this, and it's an increasing amount of racial abuse reported by doctors.
Dr Sid Orekondy is an ophthalmologist who trained in India and the UK.
SID OREKONDY: Some of the specialists have expressed when they called to make an appointment, they say, “Oh, not another Indian doctor.”
IAN TOWNSEND: Has this sort of attitude existed before the Patel case?
SID OREKONDY: No, no.
IAN TOWNSEND: Twenty per cent of Australia's doctors are trained overseas. In rural Queensland, 40 per cent of the doctors are foreign-trained and that's where much of the abuse has been reported lately.
The Bundaberg Hospital at the centre of the scandal has actually launched a campaign to try to stop the racial abuse.
It's put up some anti-racism posters around the hospital.
Dr Ross Maxwell from Dalby in Queensland is the Vice-President of the Rural Doctors Association of Australia.
ROSS MAXWELL: Stories of patients coming in who’ve not seen that particular doctor before will make disparaging remarks about their skills, will… and sometimes will even make threatening comments to the doctors if they don't get what they want.
So there have been some really unfortunate and quite ugly experiences that some of these doctors… It is fortunate that this isn't right across the board, that there are many doctors who do report that their communities are very supportive of them, and I guess that gives us some hope for the good nature of most people.
IAN TOWNSEND: Have the number of reports of abuse increased since the Dr Patel case?
ROSS MAXWELL: Absolutely.
I think people unfortunately particularly target doctors who are of Indian subcontinent background and particularly doctors who obviously would have had English as their second language. They are really a prime target for such comments.
Dr Sid Orekondy who's the President of the Overseas and Australian Medical Graduates Association says it's now a matter of educating the public to what's really going on.
SID OREKONDY: The truth is like this, you know, that the overseas-trained doctors, particularly those who have come to this country as permanent residents, have to sit for an exam, you know the AMC (Australian Medical Council) exam which is tougher than the local MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine/ Bachelor of Surgery) exam.
PETER CAVE: Dr Sid Orekondy, President of the Overseas and Australian Medical Graduates Association.
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2005/s1408475.htm
Our overseas doctors face a battle for trust
10.07.2005
By Tenille Bonoguore
SOME overseas-trained doctors on the Sunshine Coast are being vilified and have had their credentials unfairly scrutinised in the wake of the Patel Inquiry.
Overseas doctors now say there is an urgent need to reform procedures for the registration of foreign practitioners, due to growing public distrust.
They want immediate action to address the discrepancies in recruitment procedures, which at the moment vary from state to state.
The Overseas and Australian Medical Graduates Association (OAMGA) says doctors are being victimised because of their ethnic background, and the reputation and professional standing of many excellent foreign doctors has been tarnished by events in Bundaberg.
OAMGA President, Dr Sid Orekondy said he has anecdotal evidence of doctors on the Sunshine Coast being among those who have been abused and questioned since the inquiry began.
“Unfortunately ethnicity, rather than competence, has become the issue,” he said.
“Doctors of Indian appearance are particularly being targeted.”
Dr Orekondy said overseas-trained doctors moving to Australia permanently are obliged to undergo stringent accreditation, including having to sit an examination and then work under supervision in a hospital environment for two years.
However, those with temporary resident visas (as in the case of Dr Patel) who apply for registration are not subjected to the same rigorous procedures.
Dr Orekony said health authorities owe it to the public and overseas-trained doctors to do more to assess their skills.
“At the moment it varies considerably between state medical boards and we believe there should be centralised, uniform regulations put in place,” Dr Orekony said.
“We would like the medical colleges to get involved and appropriate supervision and other conditions attached to registration for those doctors on temporary visas.
“Currently one in five medical practitioners in Australia is trained overseas.
“A lot of these doctors are doing a fantastic job but many are having their qualifications questioned, particularly specialists. Some have noticed their patient lists are getting shorter.
“It has made us feel very uncomfortable and it could be enough to encourage some doctors to leave Australia and deter others from coming here to practise.”
Dr Orekondy said despite the widespread publicity about the Dr Patel Inquiry, governments and the medical colleges have remained silent on this issue.
“We would like to reassure the public that overseas doctors are of a high standard,” he said.
“We don’t want these problems either, and that’s why we believe uniform regulations should be introduced.
http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/storydisplay.cfm?storyid=3643156&thesection=localnews&thesubsection=&thesecondsubsection=
Dr Death scandal 'creating panic': ADTOA Date: 06/07/05 By Janelle Miles
The Dr Death scandal had created "irrational panic" among patients about overseas-trained doctors, groups representing foreign-trained medicos say.
As evidence mounts against Dr Jayant Patel at the Bundaberg Hospital inquiry, bodies representing other foreign trained-doctors expressed concern that patients were refusing to see specialists with "overseas-sounding" names.
"They're refusing to go to see Indian doctors. They've just gone into irrational panic," said Andrew Schwartz, president of the Australian Doctors Trained Overseas Association (ADTOA).
"It's worse in Queensland but it's happening everywhere."
Dr Patel, who was appointed director of surgery at Bundaberg Hospital without being registered by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, has been found responsible for eight deaths and linked to about 80 others.
The controversy surrounding his appointment by Queensland Health has put the competence of overseas-trained doctors under the microscope.
An estimated 20 per cent of doctors in Australia have received their training overseas.
Mr Schwartz said the overall rates of adverse medical outcomes by overseas-trained doctors was no higher than for Australian-trained doctors.
He said unless Australia could attract more medical professionals from overseas, the health system would collapse.
"People have got to understand, by letting doctors come here and practise here, they're not doing them a favour, there's a real need for it," he said in an interview.
Ophthalmologist Sid Orekondy, who has trained in India and England as well as practising in Australia for 30 years, said the Bundaberg inquiry highlighted the need for a national standardised approach to the registration of temporary resident doctors, like Dr Patel.
"We are concerned that as the Dr Patel inquiry unfolds, some groups in Queensland would rather see foreign doctors treated as scapegoats than admit that the process for assessment, certification and training of temporary resident doctors is flawed," said Dr Orekondy, president of the Overseas and Australian Medical Graduates Association of Australia (OAMGA).
Dr Orekondy said the Medical Council of Australia coordinated stringent accreditation standards for overseas-trained doctors moving to Australia permanently.
But the scrutiny of doctors practising under temporary resident visas varied between states.
"It is disappointing that registration by state medical boards to practise in areas of need ... does not encompass greater assessment," he said.
Dr Orekondy said doctors trained overseas recognised the importance of demonstrating medical care consistent with Australia's high standards.
But he said they were frustrated their credentials were being called into question because of Queensland Health's failure to check Dr Patel's medical background and supervise his performance.
http://seven.com.au/news/nationalnews/91582
Patients snub foreign doctors
http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,15840860,00.html
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