Scroll waaay down to CP's thread! He is/was an American attending now working in Australia, has gone through all the hoops. You can ask him anything in it
US doctor moving to Australia
I can't help you with your first questions unfortunately!
On where you'll be able to practice.
That's always the question of the hour.
No easy way to answer it.
Anecdotally, it's getting harder for everyone (domestic or IMG etc) to find attending positions in metro urban areas for any hospital based medicine. That's what's been told to me by hospital based specialty attendings - an attending I am not, so grain of salt. I'm sure everyone has their own take on this. It's not unusual to find young attendings working in regional areas because they have to (domestic Aussies or otherwise). Or rural in some cases, until they have built up their CVs more. So it doesn't have to be permanent. It may be easier for IM compared to say nephrology (there's generally fewer positions for nephrologists as compared to IM, just universally)
There's no restriction per se or return of service (that I'm aware of - anyone feel to correct me on this) forcing you to practice in an underserved area. May be gloss through CP's thread on this too.
There is however a medicare 10 yr moratorium that can limit practicing privately - otherwise that would be an option.
Medicare provider number for overseas trained doctors and foreign graduates - Australian Government Department of Human Services. Also discussed here:
Facts about the 10 year moratorium.
Most opportunities are in rural or underserved areas. Not like there is zero opportunity in cities but you have to be a very competitive applicant as generally more people want them. And the usual, people prefer to hire who they know (it's not a rule, just how it works out sometimes). If you go on websites like erecruit, many hospitals use that to advertise positions which can give you an idea. At least apply widely, hope for the best, prepare for the worst etc. You never know. Be persistent.
If you have to do supervised rotations they don't hurt you, IMO, because you can get Australian LORs, do networking, find out what hospitals are good to work at etc. Get used to the Australian healthcare system in a more supported fashion.
Keep updated with VISA changes. It's a bit unstable at the moment. Apparently more changes are expected to be announced this month. Previous changes have been more restrictive on immigration for those not intending to work in rural areas. As reportedly, we are in 'oversupply' rather than shortage in urban areas.
Forecast oversupply of doctors to hit this year amid calls to halt imports. (Reportedly.. the original source is the Australian DoH (Dept of Health)).
Finally.
It's far easier to do a fellowship. Have you considered that? It may be competitive depending on the fellowship, but there's no hurdles.
Everyone seems to freak out the prospective of working rural.
Trying to take a softer approach to this in answering queries.
Also.. rural Australia doesn't necessarily mean working in remote Australia or the sticks. Being a small country, working rural isn't necessarily far from a city either. Yes it can be in many instances, but it can also mean being a 2-3 hour drive away, as opposed to 10-20 hours. If you do your research, you'll find some of the small towns have a reasonable level of amenities or resemble "mini-cities". Or they may be in wine country or on the beach. Many have tertiary hospitals themselves and offer a very supportive working environment with research opportunities and a medical school affiliated with them. Obviously not all of them, but certainly you can find great rural towns to work in.
