I've seen a lot of misconception about the 10 year moratorium (particularly in the UQ forums) and since I know there is a lot of misinformation out there I thought I'd post a few things about it.
Firstly I'm a Canadian who is now an Australian citizen and I'm currently doing my residency in Australia.
1. How does the moratorium effect International students?
In my experience it doesn't effect international students greatly. You are still able to apply for jobs at all the major metro hospitals for all the speciality programs.
If you are a GP though it means you have to go through the rural GP pathway (ie Zone 4 or more which means areas less then 100 000 people) to complete your GP training. This is about the only real effect of the Moratorium that you will find while training. Unless you apply for an exemption under 19AB (which people have gotten if they have a partner or some other reason this would cause them undue hardship).
2. What does the moratorium really mean?
Contrary to what I've read on these forums, the moratorium prevents you from obtaining a provider number after graduation, not from working in a large city. A provider number is needed to work privately (ie as a GP or if you have rooms as a specialist). Unless you get a waiver from an area in need (this includes areas on the outskirts of large metros or regional/rural/remote areas).
Now here is the funny thing - I see lots of debate about this meaning effectively that you will be forced to a rural area, mainly by pre-meds who have no idea how specialists work!
Most people who become junior consultants after graduation know very little. They have few contacts and really have zero experience as a consultant. How in the world do you expect these people to go and establish a busy private practice? What GPs will refer to them? What if they come across something they have no idea about? What senior colleages will they discuss the situation with?
Building up a lucrative private practice takes time, and experience. Most junior consultants (and that includes locals) are more then happy to take up a public job and build up a steady client base/referral network to funnel to their private rooms. They also prefer the safety of having senior colleages around to discuss difficult cases with, which is a lot easier to do publicly.
In terms of pay, though the "hard cash" you get is less then private work. You do a lot less as well. You also have a lot of fringe benefits like 24k for conferences yearly, fuel cards, free cars, laptops, living reinbursements etc. that close the gap between the two jobs. Ideally however for most benefit you should have both jobs, so you get the advantages of each.
What I'm saying then is that you will probably want to work publicly after you graduate, and the moratorium isn't going to stop you from doing that in a large city. If for some reason you are ahead of the game and ready for private practice (and most importantly have a good referral network) then you can go to an area of need, which doesn't mean rural. There are areas of need everywhere.
Since you are looking at 5+ years for most training programs (especially if you include the RMO years) you realistically only have 2-3 years of moratorium time left by the time you are done. More then enough to get experience to build up a private practice. Most importantly more then fair to Australia for training you, and paying your salary.
3. What about GPs?
These guys unfortunately get hit the hardest. Since they will have the most moratorium time left after finishing. However they also get paid really well, even while training. If you look at the RRIPS you will see that they have the potential to earn $200k + a year for working 9-5 as registrars (depending on what zone they work in). They also can get into GP training in their intern year.
There are however a few ways of reducing or waiving the moratorium. The first option is schemes similar to the NSW rural doctors 5 year scheme (google it). It can reduce your moratorium to between 3-5 years depending on where you practice. Again the more rural you go the less time you do. This scheme is specific for GPs.
Areas of need are also huge loopholes. There are areas outside large metros that are classed as in need. If you want to get a particular area as classed in need the practice simply applies to the DH&A and it can be done fairly quickly.
Waivers are another way to go. You can get a waiver under 19AB and it's not as hard as you would think. Simply ask a practice that you want to work in to fill in the paperwork (ie demostrate they have been unable to hire a non moratorium candidate) and you can get an exemption. This applies to specialists as well.
If you still can't find a way out go and get registered in New Zealand or Canada. You can still work in a large centre there until your moratorium time is finished.
4. Any exemptions?
Yes some jobs by their very natures have exemptions. Pathologists for example do not require provider numbers because one person in the lab provides it for all the others. So they are naturally exempt. Other jobs like neurosurgeons are also exempt because they need to work in centres with neurosurgery support and thus it would make no sense to send them to the bush. ED physicians who also tend to work largely publicly probably won't have any issues either. It's also easier for them to get waivers since there is a huge shortage of them everywhere.
The whole point of this is to show you that it's not really as bad as you may think, and realistically it won't effect most of you.
Firstly I'm a Canadian who is now an Australian citizen and I'm currently doing my residency in Australia.
1. How does the moratorium effect International students?
In my experience it doesn't effect international students greatly. You are still able to apply for jobs at all the major metro hospitals for all the speciality programs.
If you are a GP though it means you have to go through the rural GP pathway (ie Zone 4 or more which means areas less then 100 000 people) to complete your GP training. This is about the only real effect of the Moratorium that you will find while training. Unless you apply for an exemption under 19AB (which people have gotten if they have a partner or some other reason this would cause them undue hardship).
2. What does the moratorium really mean?
Contrary to what I've read on these forums, the moratorium prevents you from obtaining a provider number after graduation, not from working in a large city. A provider number is needed to work privately (ie as a GP or if you have rooms as a specialist). Unless you get a waiver from an area in need (this includes areas on the outskirts of large metros or regional/rural/remote areas).
Now here is the funny thing - I see lots of debate about this meaning effectively that you will be forced to a rural area, mainly by pre-meds who have no idea how specialists work!
Most people who become junior consultants after graduation know very little. They have few contacts and really have zero experience as a consultant. How in the world do you expect these people to go and establish a busy private practice? What GPs will refer to them? What if they come across something they have no idea about? What senior colleages will they discuss the situation with?
Building up a lucrative private practice takes time, and experience. Most junior consultants (and that includes locals) are more then happy to take up a public job and build up a steady client base/referral network to funnel to their private rooms. They also prefer the safety of having senior colleages around to discuss difficult cases with, which is a lot easier to do publicly.
In terms of pay, though the "hard cash" you get is less then private work. You do a lot less as well. You also have a lot of fringe benefits like 24k for conferences yearly, fuel cards, free cars, laptops, living reinbursements etc. that close the gap between the two jobs. Ideally however for most benefit you should have both jobs, so you get the advantages of each.
What I'm saying then is that you will probably want to work publicly after you graduate, and the moratorium isn't going to stop you from doing that in a large city. If for some reason you are ahead of the game and ready for private practice (and most importantly have a good referral network) then you can go to an area of need, which doesn't mean rural. There are areas of need everywhere.
Since you are looking at 5+ years for most training programs (especially if you include the RMO years) you realistically only have 2-3 years of moratorium time left by the time you are done. More then enough to get experience to build up a private practice. Most importantly more then fair to Australia for training you, and paying your salary.
3. What about GPs?
These guys unfortunately get hit the hardest. Since they will have the most moratorium time left after finishing. However they also get paid really well, even while training. If you look at the RRIPS you will see that they have the potential to earn $200k + a year for working 9-5 as registrars (depending on what zone they work in). They also can get into GP training in their intern year.
There are however a few ways of reducing or waiving the moratorium. The first option is schemes similar to the NSW rural doctors 5 year scheme (google it). It can reduce your moratorium to between 3-5 years depending on where you practice. Again the more rural you go the less time you do. This scheme is specific for GPs.
Areas of need are also huge loopholes. There are areas outside large metros that are classed as in need. If you want to get a particular area as classed in need the practice simply applies to the DH&A and it can be done fairly quickly.
Waivers are another way to go. You can get a waiver under 19AB and it's not as hard as you would think. Simply ask a practice that you want to work in to fill in the paperwork (ie demostrate they have been unable to hire a non moratorium candidate) and you can get an exemption. This applies to specialists as well.
If you still can't find a way out go and get registered in New Zealand or Canada. You can still work in a large centre there until your moratorium time is finished.
4. Any exemptions?
Yes some jobs by their very natures have exemptions. Pathologists for example do not require provider numbers because one person in the lab provides it for all the others. So they are naturally exempt. Other jobs like neurosurgeons are also exempt because they need to work in centres with neurosurgery support and thus it would make no sense to send them to the bush. ED physicians who also tend to work largely publicly probably won't have any issues either. It's also easier for them to get waivers since there is a huge shortage of them everywhere.
The whole point of this is to show you that it's not really as bad as you may think, and realistically it won't effect most of you.
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