The number of overseas doctors seeking to work in Australia has fallen 90 per cent because of the federal government's handling of the case against former suspected terrorism supporter Mohamed Haneef, a medical association warns.
The Overseas and Australian Medical Graduates Association (OAMGA), in a joint statement with the United Indian Associations (UIA) group, said the massive drop in the number of doctors seeking temporary visas to work in Australia was exacerbating the existing health crisis.
"This spells disaster for an already overstretched and under-resourced medical work force - particularly for rural and regional areas where many of these doctors are posted," OAMGA president Dr Nagamma Prakash said today.
"In the various interviews given by the presidents of UIA and OAMGA to both national and international media, they predicted that overseas doctors planning to arrive in Australia would reconsider their decision ... they have been proven correct."
Dr Prakash also said there was "growing anger amongst Australians of Indian background" over the Howard government's handling of the Haneef's case, adding it had "brought discredit to the Indian Community here in Australia".
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