Most SA docs trained overseas: Why our health system could collapse without migrants

‘See a migrant doctor or no doctor at all’. The state’s peak medical body chief reveals the startling numbers of overseas trained doctors and nurses keeping our hospitals operating.

Last week, at a speech to the Sydney Institute, Premier Peter Malinauskas warned against a ‘political race to the bottom’ on migration.

For healthcare, his remarks go to the heart of a difficult question: where would Australia’s health workforce come from if migration were substantially reduced?

South Australia has ambitious plans to grow. The Premier has said the state needs an additional 2,000 skilled migrants a year to build submarines, mine copper and support major projects. Every one of those workers will need a GP.

So will their partners children and parents. Every growing community will need nurses, paramedics, specialists, aged care workers and allied health professionals.

The two conversations should go together.

The reality is that healthcare already relies heavily on overseas-trained doctors. They account for more than half of Australia’s medical workforce, with even higher proportions in many regional........

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