The trend of seeking foreign skilled professionals for employment positions has extended to the world of medicine, with an increasing number of hospitals feeling the need to recruit doctors for Australian immigration.

Areas such at Tottenham in Victoria have failed to find suitable doctors to fill the void that currently exists, and the only alternative is to recruit professionals from abroad.

George Cowan, the general manager of the Lachlan Shire council, said: “It doesn't matter where you recruit from, the doctors have got to go through a pretty extensive process with immigration and also with medical boards here to get approval to practise and that takes quite a long time.” 

Doctors are among the professions on the Migration Occupation in Demand List, meaning that their Australian visa applications are likely to be fast-tracked in order to allow them to commence work in the country as quickly as possible.