Medical Training Review Panel 19th Report

Specialist International Medical Graduates

The assessment of an overseas trained applicant’s qualifications, training and experience is undertaken by the College for the AMC. The AMC delegates to the college the responsibility of determining whether that applicant’s qualifications and professional experience are comparable to those of an Australian-trained specialist in obstetrics and gynaecology.
An assessment of the applicant’s specialist training and experience, including three detailed referee reports, is undertaken to determine whether they may be considered comparable to an Australian-trained specialist in obstetrics and gynaecology, and thus proceed to an interview assessment conducted by a College panel, which includes a community representative.

Interviews are held approximately every eight weeks at College House in Melbourne. There are three possible outcomes from the interview:

• 
  an applicant may be deemed to be substantially comparable to an Australian-trained specialist and invited to apply for fellowship of the college following satisfactory completion of a period of up to 12 months supervised specialist work and participation in CPD activities;
  
• 
  an applicant may be deemed to be partially comparable to an Australian-trained specialist; or
  
• 
  an applicant may be deemed to be neither partially nor substantially comparable to an Australian-trained specialist, in which case they will need to obtain the AMC Certificate and then apply to enter the college’s specialist training program in order to proceed to fellowship of the College.
  

If deemed ‘partially comparable’ an applicant is required to complete a minimum of
12 months and a maximum of 24 months of prospectively approved supervised training before being eligible to apply for fellowship. During this time, they must satisfactorily complete the College Membership Written and Oral Examinations, two in-hospital clinical assessments, basic and advanced surgical procedures assessments and the College’s Communication Skills Workshop. They must work closely with an approved training supervisor, submit satisfactory three-monthly formative and six-monthly summative assessment reports and, be certified as having satisfactorily demonstrated a list of competencies that are drawn from the RANZCOG Curriculum. Applicants assessed as ‘partially comparable’ have a maximum of four years from the date of their assessment to complete their requirements.