Support for Refugee Doctors Seeking Legal Entitlement to Practise Medicine in the United Kingdom: A Model for Australia.

In Australia, there are not enough doctors practising medicine in certain locations and specialties to meet demand. To address these shortages, Australia is attempting to encourage more international medical graduates (IMGs) to immigrate. Yet a cohort of IMGs already in Australia is not currently practising medicine: doctors from a refugee or asylum-seeker background (refugee doctors). Research has confirmed that refugee doctors can face substantial obstacles to attaining legal entitlement to practise medicine in Australia, yet they receive little coordinated support in overcoming them. Legal preconditions for registration of medical practitioners in the United Kingdom and Australia are similar, but in contrast to Australia, the United Kingdom has experimented with a broad range of significant initiatives to assist refugee doctors. This article analyses relevant laws and policies in both countries and the support provided to refugee doctors in meeting them, and makes recommendations for Australia to emulate the United Kingdom's model.