How long is a piece of red tape?
Posted on Wednesday 9th December 2009
About as long as the string equivalent if I’m any judge.
After many months of delay on my part, I have finally pushed through the paperwork necessary to acquire full registration here. Or have I? Well, it turns out that what I thought would be a formality from here is somewhat more complex than it need be.
I thought it was reasonable enough that the AMC would want to see full and frank evidence of my experience and qualifications from the UK, but now the local board seem to want their pound of flesh too. A clinical assessment was always on the agenda, but I didn’t realise that I would have to put in yet more paperwork just to get there.
It would appear that the board is indulging themselves in bureaucracy, as they want me to send them a certified copy of my medical registration, even though it is them who issued it. Perhaps they don’t trust their own records, as you would have thought it would have been a simple matter to check the current database.
So, yet more hoops to jump through. Especially since, every time one of these organisations requests documentation, I have to find a Justice of the Peace to countersign. It’s a good thing they don’t charge for their services otherwise I’d have made one rather wealthy by now. Instead I’ve just been testing her patience.
Apologies for yet another ranty post, but all of this procedural BS just strikes me as utterly unnecessary. Medical education and training is very similar in both the UK and Australia so logic would dictate that the GMC and AMC get together and compare records. It could, nay should, be simple for one organisation to recognise each other’s people, but instead those of us “on the shop-floor” get forced through a convoluted and frustrating obstacle course.
Welcome to the wonderful world of job creation. Be happy in the knowledge that you are keeping someone in a job