Australian medical exam and license for Pakistan India Bangladesh
Doctors trying to excel in their career
or to take up lucrative options abroad often face lack of guidance regarding the
process and options available. Among the doctors from eastern countries, USA is
most of the time the best bet and rightly so, as it offers one of the best training
programs along with handsome pay and lifestyle most of the young graduates
couldn’t achieve in their native countries, even in upcoming several years. Having
said so, USA is not an option for every one, their visa policies along with the
need for a residency match after passing USMLE with exceptional scores and the initial
financial backing are not an option for most of the doctors in their struggling
face of career. Rest assured there are multiple options for doctors in other
developed countries and in this article we will explore Australia.
The health care
system and training programs are at par with other developed countries like the USA, UK & Canada. Opportunities for foreign medical graduates are adequate
for the right candidate, even doctors from UK and Ireland prefer working /
relocating to Australia due to higher salary and comparatively less hectic work.
Australian medical
exam for foreign medical graduates?
For most of the
foreign medical graduates including Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka,
Africa etc, the first step after getting the basic medical qualification is to
pass the Australian licensing exam the AMC.
AMC consists of two
parts:
1: Written ( CAT MCQ)
The AMC CAT MCQ
Examination tests knowledge of general practice, internal medicine, paediatrics,
psychiatry, surgery, and obstetrics and gynaecology.
The exam comprises 150 MCQs ( best of five) in a single 3.5 hour session
2: Practical OSCE
based exam
This exam tests your
clinical, counselling skills along with ethics
For FMGS aiming to move
to Australia, this is the standard pathway, one of the several pathways to enter the Australian healthcare system.
AMC PART 1 exam can
be given after graduating from the medical college e.g in house job, after
passing the part 1 exam, there are two options either to proceed with the part
2 exam and get a full license registration and apply for the job.
Or clear part 1 and
start a job directly that offers work place based assessment, this pathway of
work place based assessment allows doctors working in select health facilities
to start working after their part 1 exam and work in a supervised workplace for
a year followed by workplace assessment, on a limited registration. After the
one-year workplace based assessment is complete, the license is converted into a
full license.
AMC exam and license fee
The charges for
exams include EPIC credential verification charges, AMC portfolio charges, Part
1 and Part 2 exam fee and travelling expense.
Epic charges US
$130 to setup an account followed by $ 100 for Basic medical qualification
verification.
AMC Portfolio
charges AUD $ 500
AMC CAT MCQ PART 1 :
AUD$ 2750
AMC PART 2: AUD $ 3530
Workplace based assessment: AUD $650
AMC Exam venue for overseas FMGS
For Pakistani doctors there is currently no centre for exam in
Pakistan, you will have to arrange visa and travel to Australia to appear in
exam.
For updated list of test venues for other countries, visit here. http://www.vue.com/amc
AMC License registration:
Once the candidate has successfully passed the exam, there is an
additional requirement of English language test e.g. OET / ILETS in order to
proceed with license registration
How to prepare for AMC exam 2022
The AMC exam is a final year level knowledge exam, in order to
pass this exam mcqs practice as well as some text review is required.
For a start, here are the recommended preparation resources for acing
the AMC EXAM.
AMC MCQ – Handbook of multiple-choice questions
Anthology of multiple-choice questions
John Murtagh’s General Practice
Good medical practice
Guidelines for Preventive Activities in General Practice.
In addition to these standard resources, there are multiple AMC Q
banks and preparation resources one can choose according to his/her style of
study.
Specialization options in Australia after getting license:
Once the full license is secured, there are two options, either to
continue with the regular hospital job or proceed with Family practice vs Specialization.
Similar to UK, for a residency position there are the Australian
royal college exams that need to passed along-with a training position e.g. in
Medicine, Surgery, Gyne, Peads Etc.
For those intending to pursue G.P practice, also lucrative
option for the FMG’s, as it offers shorter duration of training and comparatively
good financial return and work-life balance.
What are the other pathways for Australian license:
Competent Authority pathway
The Competent Authority pathway is for overseas-trained
non-specialists but is also available to specialists, including general
practitioners. This Pathway leads to public registration.
Specialist Pathway
The Specialist Pathway is for the following IMGs:
Overseas-trained specialists applying for assessment of
comparability to the standard of a specialist trained in that specialty in
Australia (specialist recognition), and
Overseas-trained specialists are used for an area of need
specialist-level positions in Australia (location of the market).
IMGs apply directly to the specialist medical college for the
Specialist Pathway.
Standard Pathway
The standard Pathway is generally for non-specialist IMGs
seeking general registration in Australia who do not qualify for the Competent
Authority Pathway.
There are 2 alternate processes leading to the AMC Certificate
under this Pathway.
Standard Pathway (AMC examinations)
Traditional Pathway (workplace-based assessment)
Short-term training in a medical speciality pathway
The short-term training in a medical speciality pathway is for
IMGs. They are overseas-trained specialists-in-training wishing to undertake a
short period (usually up to 24 months) of specialist or advanced training in Australia.
This Pathway does not lead to registration as a specialist in
Australia. IMGs seeking to qualify for specialist registration apply for
registration via the specialist Pathway – specialist recognition
This is an overview of the Australian pathway for FMG’s, Australia
is preferred option for most FMG’S because of early visa and permanent residency
as well as higher pays and moderately hectic work routine. The community is also diverse and multicultural and becoming more tolerant of immigrants especially in larger cities.
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