FOREIGN DOCTORS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 220, 17 September 1938, Page 24

FOREIGN DOCTORS.

CHECKING THE RUSH.

NEW SOUTH WALES BILL.

EXAMINATIONS SPECIFIED.

S"\ DNEY. September 12.

Host net ion* oil t lie freedom of foreign doctors to practise in Xew South Wale* are proposed in the Medical Practitioners Bill, the second reading of which has U;en agreed to in :he Legislative Assembly. The Minister for Health, Mr. Fit zSimoiis. said that the Act of i<M2 was amended, in 1015 to exclude German and Austrian subjects from practising in New South Wales, and that bar remained even when it was possible for subjects of other foreign nations to practise in New South Wales. That discrimination, under the bill, would be wiped out. All foreign subjects would be placed on the same footing. Foreigners would l>e allowed to practise only if they completed the fourth, fifth, and final examinations at Sydney University.

"We do not desire a great influx of foreign doctors," said Mr. FitzSimons. 1 here are at present 2000 medical students at the Australian universities, 900 being in Sydney. Many of these young men conic lroni Rumble homes. I lie that a man has a foreign name and has taken his course at a foreign university does not make him any better than the Australian practitioner.

"We recognise that there rifay be foreign doctors of exceptional standard who, for political reasons, are forced to leave their country. We desire to provide these men with a method l>v which they can enter and serve the State, but we do not propose to provide an open door for large numbers of foreign doctors. Under the bill a hospital desiring the services of a foreigner for research or post-graduate teaching may apply to the Medical Board for his registration. If approved, the practitioner would then become member of the hospital stall and a servant of the State. In that way only is it proposed to leave the door open.''