More doctors are working in rural South-East Queensland than in any other bush region in Australia, new figures reveal.
A recent survey conducted on behalf of Australia's Rural Workforce Agencies found more than 1080 general practitioners were working in rural Queensland in December last year, compared with just 967 in regional Victoria and 562 in Western Australia.
Rural Health Workforce Australia chief executive, Dr Kim Webber, says the increased number of doctors in the bush is largely the result of financial incentives and a successful recruitment campaign designed to lure foreign medical graduates.
"(We) have been able to successfully recruit international doctors at a time when there is intense recruitment competition of doctors from other countries such as Canada and the USA," Dr Webber said.
Under Queensland's Overseas Trained Doctor Scheme, government relocation grants worth up to $20,000 are offered to international medical graduates moving to the bush to assist with travel expenses.
The assistance scheme also offers support to overseas trained doctors sitting Australian Medical Council or Fellowship exams.
"Over the past 10 years, the number of international medical graduates working in rural and remote Australia has more than doubled. They are an invaluable part of our workforce," Dr Webber said.
Although the number of GPs working in the bush increased by 3.2pc nationally, more registrars - medical graduates in their first years of practice - took residencies in rural Queensland than in regional New South Wales and Victoria.
Australian-trained registrars accounted for 140 medical positions in rural Queensland, compared with 129 in regional New South Wales and 126 in Victoria.
The figures contradicted claims a reliance on foreign doctors in country Queensland would have a significant impact on the training of Australian medical graduates.
General practitioner Dr Chris Pickett said unlike Australian-trained doctors, those educated overseas often did not have supervisory qualifications from the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners to enable them to train future GPs.
"You need to be a fellow of the college to provide that supervision and the majority of overseas-trained doctors...have not got their fellowship," Dr Pickett said.
"We try to the extent we can to provide training support for them, education support for them, but because they're so busy in general practice the required time to devote to study is often not there."
However, Queensland General Practice chairman John Kastrissios said the State could not afford to rely on Australian-trained doctors, due to a national shortage of GPs.
"The expansion of medical schools and undergraduate places in Australia by the previous Federal Government is intended to make Australia more self-reliant, but there is at least five to ten years until these graduates move into the workforce," Dr Kastrissios said.
"In the meantime it is necessary to fill the demand for rural medical services, which has effectively been done to date in Queensland through the recruitment of overseas trained practitioners."
Dr Kastrissios said a reduction in the number of clinical hours worked by GPs, also made the recruitment of overseas trained doctors necessary.
The number of average clinical hours worked per week by GPs declined from 36.7 hours in November 2006, to 36 hours in 2007.
Furthermore, more than 21pc of GPs in Queensland only worked part-time.
"New, tougher national assessment guidelines introduced this month for some overseas doctors will ensure that Queenslanders receive quality medical care," Dr Kastrissios said.
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