Inaugural AMA IMG Working Group meets
The IMG Working Group met for the first time this week in a step towards better understanding what the AMA can do for international medical graduates.
The AMA International Medical Graduate Working Group (IMG-WG) met for the first time this week.
The key objectives of the IMG-WG will be to recommend what actions the AMA can take to advocate for pathways to support work participation and career progression for IMGs, and also to provide advice on how to ensure membership of the AMA is relevant to IMGs.
The formation of this group follows outcomes of the AMA Rural Medical Training Summit (AMA Rural Medical Training Summit), where IMGs told the AMA greater support for IMGs is needed to provide appropriate supervision, create support networks and build fair employment and training systems.
AMA President Professor Steve Robson told the IMG-WG the AMA is adamant that doctors who trained outside of Australia for part of or all of their training are fundamental to Australia's health system.
“Some of Australia's great doctors, great leaders, great scientists are people from overseas. It is absolutely critical that the AMA is completely engaged with international medical graduates as a group, that we learn from you, and that it’s a high priority for the AMA to make IMG experiences as great as we can possibly make them,” he said.
The IMG-WG discussed challenges facing IMGs and where Federal AMA can have the biggest influence to advocate for improvements. The group also discussed current and planned work at Federal AMA related to IMGs, including its ongoing contributions to the Kruk review and related projects, and the numerous sessions for IMGs at the AMA24 conference in August.
