Top Australian universities have warned that the country is facing a shortage of medical workers, adding that extra medical students are needed to avert the looming crisis.
The Group of Eight (Go8), a coalition of elite research universities, published a policy paper, calling for the federal government to fund at least an additional 1,000 extra places for domestic medical students every year, reports Xinhua news agency.
It warned that relying on recruiting internationally-trained doctors was unsustainable in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic due to increased burn-out, putting Australia on a path to a medical workforce crisis.
The policy paper has been backed by leading doctors' groups, medical experts and government health departments.
"They agree that delivering Australia's future medical workforce will require a step change and bold reform. The Go8's starting point is an immediate increase in the national supply of domestically trained medical practitioners," Vicki Thomson, chief executive of the Go8, said in a statement.
"The Australian community needs certainty around health services and a secure supply of domestically trained medical practitioners will assist this greatly. To increase our sovereign capacity, even without increasing the total number of doctors in Australia, requires at least an additional 1,000 domestic graduates per year."
Go8 universities, which include the Australian National University (ANU), the University of Melbourne and the University of Sydney, educate 62 per cent of Australia's medical graduates, according to the Brisbane Times.
The policy paper noted that of Australia's 105,000 medical practitioners, 30 per cent completed their initial qualification outside of Australia and New Zealand.
"The Go8 is definitive in stating that securing the future of our medical workforce requires a serious long-term commitment," Thomson said.
A report published by Edith Cowan University (ECU) researchers in September 2021 revealed that medical practitioners were facing burnout and mental distress as a result of the pandemic
Forty-two per cent of respondents said they were less willing to work than they had been prior to the Covid-19 outbreak.