Another medical college is warning of the menace to patient safety resulting from AHPRA’s plan to start fast-tracking hundreds of overseas trained doctors “without rigorous clinical oversight”.

The Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA ) has called on the watchdog to halt the reform for further consultation.

Pushed by state and federal health ministers as a partial fix for the specialist workforce crisis, medical colleges are meant to provide AHPRA with a list of overseas qualifications they deem substantially equivalent to their own fellowships.

The Medical Board of Australia, rather than the specialist medical colleges themselves, would then be tasked with assessing the clinical skills of the applicants with these qualifications.