(1)   Is he aware that following the ‘Dr Death’ Inquiry the Queensland State Government and Medical Registration Board put in place stricter rules for overseeing foreign doctors that have directly contributed to the closure of the Bedside Manor Medical Centre in Charters Towers because the operators were unable to engage any foreign doctors and this has forced the remaining 5 doctors to operate under enormous pressure.

(2)   Is he aware that the Mareeba Hospital is open only because the remaining 8 Tableland doctors, for a town of 20,000 people, have agreed to work longer hours.

(3)   Is he aware that there are only 4 doctors in Thuringowa’s northern beaches but that there should be 20 doctors for the 22,000 residents.

(4)   Will he explain what he is doing to circumvent the strict overseeing of foreign doctors by qualified Australian doctors when there are few doctors to do this work.

(5)   What has he done to alleviate the current doctor shortages that are placing people’s lives at risk.

(1)   Medical registration in Queensland is the responsibility of the Queensland State Government. The rules and regulations governing medical practitioners in Queensland are promulgated by Queensland legislation and the Queensland Medical Registration Board.

(2)   The provision of public hospital services in Queensland is the responsibility of the Queensland State Government.

(3)   In order to confirm the number of doctors working in Thuringowa’s northern beaches, more specific information on the defined boundary of this area would be required. Thuringowa is a district of medical workforce shortage. Therefore, it is likely that an overseas trained doctor who was subject to Medicare provider number restrictions would be granted a provider number to work in this locality.

(4)   Overseas trained doctors who enter Australia must meet certain quality standards in order to be registered to practise medicine. Medical registration is the responsibility of the states and territory governments and all doctors must be registered before they can provide clinical services. Under the auspices of the Strengthening Medicare package, the Commonwealth has been working with state and territory health departments, medical registration boards, and major medical stakeholders to develop nationally consistent principles for the assessment and supervision of temporary resident overseas trained doctors. On 10 February 2006 the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed to implement a national assessment process for overseas qualified doctors to ensure appropriate standards in qualifications and training, and to increase the efficiency of the assessment process.

(5)   The Australian Government has made medical workforce a major focus of its $4 billion package for Strengthening Medicare. The range of initiatives contained in the Strengthening Medicare package have short, medium and long term objectives.