A little bit of poaching from the poor


If I have read the data on the World Health Organisation's Global Atlas of the Health Workforce correctly then in 2004 India had 0.6 of a medical physician for every 1000 people. Figures released yesterday by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Australia in 2006 had 2.9 "full-time equivalent (FTE) medical practitioners" for every 1000 people.
We might be complaining in this country about the shortage of doctors - and Australia is still below the OECD average for physicians - but by comparison with Indians we appear to be well serviced. That is a conclusion that sits awkwardly with the decision last month by the Australian Medical Council to give a United States company a contract to open five exam centres in India to streamline the recruitment of overseas-trained doctors. Why the the federal government had gone back on its 2003 pledge not to actively recruit doctors in developing countries, a practice that has been condemned on the basis that it strips highly qualified professionals from the nations that can least afford to lose them, was not explained. "There has been a very careful review of the situation in India, and we have been given instruction that they are no longer part of these sensitive areas," is all that AMC chief executive Ian Frank said on the subject.
So much for the supposed greater concern of a Labor Government to help the world's poor.

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