Overseas Trained Doctors - A Tale

At any one time there are something like 1,500 to 2,000 overseas trained doctors who have migrated and settled in Australia. Some came as refugees escaping persecution from number of countries and in recent times, from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Egypt. Others arrived from South Africa or number of Eastern European countries as well as Western Europe; including the United Kingdom.

Regardless of one's experience and expertise as a doctor, to become registered and have qualifications recognised in Australia, overseas doctor's have to sit and pass a specially designed exam and pass a language exam.  The success rate of passing this exam is historically low and in recent years had only slightly improved.

This slight improvement is been due to individual initiatives taken by overseas trained doctors which included liasing with hospitals in order to allow them to attend and go on rounds with medical students and observe patients and take their own notes.

This blog Dear Readers, is about one such overseas trained doctor who came to Australia from Czechoslovakia (now the Czeck Republic) in1960.  His name was Frant.  For the first few years after his arrival Frant rented a room in a house and worked as a labourer in a shoe factory.  To the astonishement of other workers in the factory he told them that he was a heart specialist in Czechoslovakia and he wanted to sit for an exam and start practiciing as a doctor. At that time, in order to pass and practice as a doctor, a committee of doctors from various specialities appointed by the Royal College grilled you for as long as they saw fit.  They need not give you any reason or reasons why they failed you and told you where to go. 

Two different committees of doctors grilled Frant on two separate occasions for hours.  Neither committee could make up its mind and Frant was not told whether he passed or failed.  A 'super' committee of hand picked doctors, the best in their specialities, hand picked by the various Royal Colleges, examined Frant.  During the examination Frant put his hand up and asked the cardiologist who was interested in his replies a question.

'Could you please tell me the name of the author of the book to which you referred?'

All his examiners looked at him with a stare  and awe.  Frant said nothing.  He folded his arms and waited for a reply. The cardiology book from which Frant had been examined was the English translation of his book written in German!

I know that there are currently taxi drivers in Sydney (and undoubtedly in other Australian States) and others, working in shops, who had been doctors with years of experience and in some cases specialists in various disciplines in their countries - even directors of emergencies and trauma medicine in major hospitals in Europe who had failed the current exams in Australia on few occasions.

One can ask how is this possible? The answer is either blowing in the wind or may be in the spirit of Frant.