Relocating to Australia as a UK GP: the expedited specialist pathway (full webinar with Emedica)

Welcome & speaker introductions

Welcome everyone to the e-medica and BDI resourcing GP careers in Australia webinar. For those that haven't met me before, a brief introduction. My name is Muhib Rahman. I'm a portfolio GP based here in Birmingham and Solihull and a medical educator. My main role now is medical director of Emedica. And as someone mentioned in the comments, um you know, we specialise in helping people get into GP training, get through GP training and then with GP careers afterwards. Um I written about GP careers.

I wrote the book GP Jobs, a guide to career options in general practice. And our team at Emedica, now we are in our 21st year this year. And in that time, we've taught over 87,000 delegates. Um, joining me today to act as faculty from the BDI resourcing team. We have Hunter, Daniel, and Ryan. Hello. Good evening everyone. Nice to see you all. Okay. So, let's go through what we'll cover today. So we've got sort of seven areas if you like that we're going to cover and we've got about an hour.

What we'll cover today

The sort of talk content if you like we actually go through the material will take about 40 to 45 minutes and then we've got the rest of the time to answer questions and deal with queries. Okay. So I'm going to start with just a comparison of the health care systems and consultations in UK compared to Australia and then we'll look a little bit about why you might be considering Australia and then the bulk of the rest of the specialised information Hunter will be covering. So he'll talk about the new expedited specialist pathway which makes it much easier for GPS who've trained in the UK or Ireland and have got MRCGP UK or MICGP from Ireland with certificate of completion of training or equivalent in Ireland to very easily and much more quickly end up in a uh GP role in Australia without having to do any further exams at all.

We'll look at the eligibility, the tri time frames, where can you work? That's a common question. What are the costs to actually relocate and then a bit of an understanding. I'll touch on it, but Hunter will go into a lot more detail about the fee for service model and the potential earning that you could make in Australia depending on how many hours you want to work. Then we've got a Q&A and before we go into the Q&A, we will cover some of the frequently asked questions that people have already emailed in before the start of this session.

So hopefully it covers some of the common things. If lots of people have asked the same thing, others might be thinking about it. Okay. Um after the Q&A, there'll be a summary and we'll also uh talk to you about if you actually want to move to Australia, what are the next steps? So that's an overview of what we're due to cover. So let's make a start.

General practice: UK vs Australia compared

So if we start with looking at the health care systems in UK and Australia and compare them, there's a lot of similarities. So both have universal healthcare systems. In the UK it's funded via tax and access directly. For most things people don't pay anything. In some parts of the UK people will pay prescription charge but you know you don't pay for your visits. You don't pay if you end up in AD. You don't pay if you need to go to hospital even if it's something elective. The NHS covers that.

So it covers GP care and hospital care. There are slight variations between the four home nations. So for example, as I mentioned like in England, people pay a prescription charge. In places like Wales, Scotland, prescriptions are covered within the NHS, but there are some variations as to what will be funded, what won't be funded. In Australia, it's again funded via tax. And what happens is that it's subsidized care that people access via a public health insurance system called Medicare.

And there's slight variation between the eight states and territories that make up Australia. So for example, if someone goes to see a GP, in some cases they'll pay a small contribution. It's heavily subsidized and the rest is covered through the Medicare system. If someone needs, you know, emergency care, they'll be taken care of. But there are some things that are covered in some territories or states that aren't covered in others. Okay? So there's some slight variation. And for those of you joining us from Ireland again, you'll be familiar some similarities with the Australia system in that if someone goes to see a GP in Ireland, they'll typically pay a co-payment.

A lot of things are covered under the national system which is funded via taxation. But there are some things where they might need to pay um you know a contribution. It's heavily subsidized. And if we look at consultations, so in the UK, it's quite common and probably I'd say the norm still unfortunately to have 10-minute consultations in a lot of practices. Now, there are some practices that will have 10-minute appointments, but they have one blocked off every hour, so essentially 12 minutes.

And there are some more progressive practices that are now having 15 minute appointments, which is I feel realistically the minimum to try to do your job well. Whenever I work in a practice, you know, I sometimes locum in different practices. Whenever I work in a practice that's on 10-minute appointments, I just find it stressful to try to do everything properly and document and keep the time. Okay. And if we look at um some studies that have been published looking at average consultation length, the UK has the shortest average consultation length in the whole of Europe.

So, averages between 9 minutes and 11 minutes depending on which study you look at. And in a lot of practices, I'd say most practices still do offer some home visits and a lot of practices they quite common that you might have to do visits uh you know either most days or if you're on call. In Australia 15 minutes is a lot more common and you have more flexibility because you're essentially an independent contractor. So there are some practices that choose to have shorter appointments so they can fit more appointments in, but it's a lot more common to have 15 minutes and you can book 20 or 30 minute um appointment slots if you know you're going to do a joint injection or you're going to do an excision biopsy or something like that.

And actually a recent study from the Royal Australian College of General Practice, the equivalent of the RCGP here, the RACGP, they found that the average consultation length in Australia is currently about 18.7 minutes. So significantly longer than the UK and home visits are almost unheard of in Australia. You might have some GPS that it's one of their long-term patients and they're, you know, terminal for palliative care and they're homebound and they might choose to visit as part of offering, you know, holistic care, but it's their choice.

It's not the norm that you would do home visit. Really, really rare in Australia. Okay. And so in Australia, the way it works is that most people are independent contractors. So you know in the UK you could be salaried in which case you get paid a certain amount per session per year you have your hours of work you have you know what you're going to get paid each month if you're a partner then how much you make depends on the profit of the practice and there's a significant additional management side of admin and paperwork in Australia the norm is that you're an independent contractor so what will happen is when you work in a practice, there'll be other doctors there.

You're all independent contractors. However many patients you see, you'll get a payment for each one. And there's different ways that the costs are worked out, which will be covered in detail later, but essentially, if you see more patients, you do more, you're going to make more. And then the practice takes a cut to cover the overhead, the management, the running of the building, the hiring of the other staff like the practice manager, reception team, um you know, nursing team and so on.

Okay. Um so, you know, in the UK, if you have a busier clinic, if you're salaried and you see extras on a given day, you don't make any more money. Your funding is by capitation. how many patients are on your list and then by additional things that you do and then sometimes depending on the nature of your contract um you know you might get additional payments for things that you've done or things that you've negotiated or opening extra and so on. Okay, so those are the sort of broad things where the similarities and differences.

Now if you qualify for the expeditive specialist pathway, one of the great things is not only is it much quicker but you don't need any exams at all. Um, so you don't need to sit AMC. You don't need to sit the equivalent of the MRCGP, the FRACGP. You don't need to sit any exams if you've done your GP training and got MRCGP and CCT in the UK or MICGP and got your certificate of completion of training in Ireland. So let's go into that in a bit more detail. So as I mentioned, this is what we're going to cover.

I've touched on this. Let's look in a bit more detail about why Australia and then go through the lot more technical aspects in detail. For that I'm going to hand you over to Hunter Diack from BDI resourcing.

Why Australia? Lifestyle, flexibility & earning potential

So um BDI they specialise in helping doctors find roles whether that's in the UK or internationally. Hunter specifically works with GPS thinking about going to Australia. He's an international recruiter. Uh he's very familiar and has a lot of expertise in the Australian registration pathways. He's personally supported hundreds of doctors to actually find a job, manage all the paperwork, relocate and start and you know stay in their job in Australia. So you know as I mentioned the BDI resourcing team, they've placed over 2,000 doctors across multiple countries.

So Hunter's got a deep working knowledge of the Australian GP landscape and system. Um, so he's going to be able to cover these things in a lot more depth and is your dedicated first point of contact. You know, if after all of this you think this is what I want to do. I'd like to seriously look into this or I'd like to look at actual jobs available now. You contact Hunter. He'll be able to help you navigate the rest of this. So, let me hand you over to Hunter. Hello everyone and uh thank you uh Mahib for the introduction.

That's very kind. Um, I'm just going to share with you my screen now. So, let's let's dive straight in. So, first of all, it's worth acknowledging. I imagine some people on this call have probably thought about this quite deeply. Maybe you've already established that Australia is is going to be the the destination for you. Others might be at a very early stage and and exploratory stage and and curious about this. So, I'm going to try and cover this fairly broad scope. Um, and I've tried to sort of approach this in in three different sections.

lifestyle, flexibility, and earning potential. So, let's talk about each one of these. Um, lifestyle first of all, um, it won't be any surprise to you, and I'm sure this resonates with many doctors who are working here in the UK. Um, year round sunshine in Australia, very different to what we experience in the UK, particularly if you're an IMG who's relocated from a a country with a very different climate. This might be quite important to you. Um, beaches, national park, we've got the Great Barrier Reef.

um open space, lots of lots to do in the outdoors, um you know, quite unique wildlife as well. So for young families especially, it's a wonderful place to be based. A culture that prioritizes personal time. Now, this is really really important and I think this is a clear distinction from perhaps life in the NHS where you you probably can think about your own situation and do you feel like work life balance is is prioritized. In Australia, they are quite relaxed as people. they're quite laid-back.

Um I I've certainly experienced that from from my conversations. And finally, if you if you're relocating with a family, outstanding schooling system, safe environment. Um and so really, if life if it's a lifestyle change you're looking for, it it does tick a lot of the boxes. Flexibility, um full autonomy. So what do I mean by this? Well, you have a lot more control over the way that you work. Um, for example, if you want to see fewer patients and do longer appointments so you can spend more time with your patients, um, you have the control to do that.

Equally, if you're someone that really wants to maximize your income and and you you're happy doing 10-minute appointments, you know, maybe you want to see six patients an hour, you do have the control to to work that way if you wish to. But the key here is that you do have control over the way that you work. Again, flexible working hours. If you want to start early uh and and finish early or equally if you if you're someone who prefers to start a little bit later in the day and finish later many practices across Australia will be open to this flexibility.

Equally weekend work out of hours is available but it is not something that is mandatory as well. So you can opt in and opt out of pretty much any uh additional work alongside your basic hours. Um reduce bureaucracy and less admin. A lot of GPS who make the move, they do report this that in Australia, if you compare that with with their experience here in the UK, they do report less admin tasks. And finally, earning potential. So, I've put some figures in here. Year 1 250,000 Australians to 400,000.

Um, I've tried to be conservative with these estimates, and if you're looking at that upper figure, that is more indicative of a full-time GP. Year two, once you're fully established, you're looking at $350,000 to $500,000 Australian dollars or perhaps even higher. Again, I am being relatively conservative. Um, I've put the figures on the right hand side there so you can see what that would equate to in UK pounds. So, if you're comparing that with an NHS salary, you can see it is significantly higher.

And again, if you're working full-time, you are looking at those upper figures, a fee for service model and billing freedom. So it's really important and Mahib touched on this earlier. This is not a salaried role. 99% of GPS working in Australia do not work on salaries. They work as independent contractors self-employed. Okay. And it gives you the freedom to build and earn in the way that you feel is best suited to your practice. Okay. So why is this uh a good opportunity for you now?

Well, at the moment there is a shortage of GPS across Australia. There has been for years uh preceding uh today. Um, and we do expect that that will be be the case, but perhaps not forever. So now is a good time to be considering the move. Shared professional standards. So Australia in general, they do look at the NHS as well as Ireland as a comparable health care system and so they share many of the professional standards. So it's a good um good switch to make and you can still settle in pretty quickly.

And what does that mean? What has that actually resulted in? The Australian federal government has decided that they want to simplify the process, try and make it a little bit easier for UK trained and Irish trained GPS to make the move to Australia. Okay, so this is where we're now going to talk about the expedited specialist pathway in a couple of slides time.

The numbers behind the GP shortage

Okay, so what do the stats actually say? Um, I think this is a good opportunity maybe to reflect on your own practice and and how many patients that you see. Um, according to the data, UK GPS see around 31 patients per day. Uh, the BMA's working uh, safe working limit is set at 25 contacts. I think the key here is that in Australia, you set the number of patients that you want to to see per day, per hour, and the length of the appointment time. So, you have a lot more control over that.

There's less targets probably coming from from the practice that you're working in, and it gives you full autonomy in the way that you want to work. Um so it would be worth perhaps self-reflecting and thinking about your own practice and and how that would would compare. The second um page here is is about um satisfaction. Okay. Um and particularly I want to draw your attention to the the bottom one here. Um the RACGP Health of Nation 2024 report found that 73% of Australian GPS are satisfied with their job.

Um, that's pretty high. Uh, if you com contrast that with the UK, it's around about 39%. Um, if you're looking at an international average across the board, it's about 51%. So, 39% for the UK, 51% international, and then 73% for GPS in Australia, which is pretty good data. And then finally, uh, beautiful picture here. I I think, don't quote me on this, but I think that's the Sunshine Coast in um Queensland. Um so, while the UK averages approximately, 1300-400 hours of sunshine annually, Australia as a whole leads with an average of 2,800 hours per year.

So, you're getting twice the sunshine hours. Uh so, you it's certainly a good move. Twice the the vitamin D. Um, I know we talk about weather in the UK in a very trivial sense often, but it does make a big difference um in terms of your your mood and and and uh general lifestyle.

The Expedited Specialist Pathway (ESP) explained

So, let's talk about the pathway. Um, many of you may know this already. Some of you are probably at the early stage and don't know at all about this pathway. So, the key here is that Australia is trying to make it easier for UK trained and Irish trained GPS. Okay? So, it's worth mentioning before I start with this that prior to October 2024, any GP that was relocating would have to go through quite a lengthy pathway in terms of college assessment, getting car uh uh comparability assessed by the Royal College in Australia.

Um, and that process was taking about 9 to 12 months. It was costing about 12,000 Australian dollars just to do the assessment. Well, that's now out of the window. As long as you have trained here in the UK or in Ireland, then you're eligible for this route. Okay. So, it's worth noting now sort of drawing a line in the sand. The most of this presentation is going to be for those who are in their final year of training or have already completed their training in the UK or Ireland.

So, the expedited specialist pathway is a streamlined route introduced in late 2024. Unlike previous routes, it bypasses the lengthy um assessment. This allows GPS to apply directly to the medical board for specialist registration. This grants you the same professional status and billing rights as an Australian trained fellow from day one. Really important distinction here. It means that you can bill Medicare from day one. To be successful in this process, you must secure an appointment in a location that holds distribution priority area status.

So essentially, you can't go and work anywhere you like. There are certain locations where you can work. I'm going to come on to that a little bit later on. Um, but there is many many outer metro locations all over Australia that would be suitable.

ESP eligibility & realistic timeframes

So, who's eligible and what's the time frame? So, nice and straightforward. Primary medical qualification. If you um studied here in the UK for your primary medical degree, you will be eligible. If you have completed your GMC registration, you would have therefore gone to an accredited university. Again, you will be eligible in this sense. So, nice and straightforward there. Specialist qualifications, MR, if you're in the UK, MRCGP UK, not MRCGP International. Again, important distinction.

And certificate of completion of training, CCT. Okay. Ireland MICGP and certificate of satisfactory completion of specialist training. So, as long as you meet those criteria, you are eligible for the expedited route. Um, worth mentioning, if you have done some kind of combined program where perhaps you've only done a couple of years training in the UK and you've done some overseas, unfortunately, you wouldn't be eligible for this route. You still have other pathways to explore, but we're not going to talk about them today.

Um, fitness to practice goes without saying, you will need to have a clean certificate of good standing from the GMC or equally from the IMC. Recency of practice. To meet the recency of practice standard, you must practice for a minimum of 4 weeks in one year, okay? Or 12 weeks over three consecutive years. So, I do get asked this question quite a lot about recency of practice. The Australian Medical Board standard is actually it's the bar is pretty low um to only need to have completed four weeks of full-time work in the in the last 12 months.

Most GPS are going to be eligible even if you've had a career gap time frame. So Apple registration processing at the moment is about 4 to 8 weeks. Um again much quicker than previous pathways that were um to any GPS that relocated 2 years ago. Um and realistic time frame for relocation inclusive of visa processing. So this is from the point of interview all the way to actually relocating you are looking at 4 to 6 months. Um that's if you've got all your documentation ready. Um realistically I would say 6 months you should sort of target.

Most clinics that we work with they are going to be happy to interview anyone who is ready to relocate in the next 12 months. They they are quite proactive. they start this process early. Um, if you are unsure about your eligibility and you, you know, please do just get in touch. We will be able to do a quick assessment of your situation. So, please get in touch after this if you're not sure, you know, you're welcome to send your CV. Equally, drop us an email, let us know of your situation and we can let you know.

And equally, if you're not eligible for this route, we'll we'll give you the options available to you.

ESP step-by-step: from EPIC verification to Medicare

So, a little bit more about this pathway and a step-by-step guide. First of all, Epic verification. You need to upload your medical degree, your MRCGP and CCT certificate. So, you need to have all three of those verified by Epic for your primary source verification. You'll need to establish an AMC portfolio with the Australian Medical Council to link your verified credentials. Step three, now this is the point that most of you will probably be most interested in. Um and also realistically you can start this now and you can sort of do step one and step two simultaneously alongside step three.

So this securing a job offer and supervision. So secure a GP role in Australia the clinic must provide a supervised practice plan. Okay. So what does that mean? It means that any clinic you go to they must have a supervisor in place who can provide you with supervision for a six-month period. Okay. And they must be a fellow um with with the Australian College. Uh now, is that very hands-on um supervision? Absolutely not. It's not handholding. You they already know that you've trained as a GP.

You're fully qualified. It's very much a case of um might be monthly sort of case review with you and then um it will be making sure that they're available on the phone in case you need any any support. So, it's very much remote supervision. APA application. Okay. Step four. So after you have secured an offer, got a contract that you're happy with and you've accepted, you then will submit your your APA application um to to for a grant of specialist registration directly to the medical board.

Once that is approved, we move on to visa processing, Medicare uh provider number issuing, and then you are pretty much ready to start work in Australia. Again, if you're if you've this is the first time you're looking at this, you might be a little bit unsure about this this process. It is now well trodden, but again, if you're unsure, get in touch with us. We will be able to guide you through it accordingly. And equally, if you secure a position, we'll guide you through it step by step.

Where can I work? DPA catchments & live map demo

So, this is probably uh the more exciting part of this. So, where can I actually live and where can I work? So, some of you may have a really good knowledge of the geography of Australia. Others may not have a clue at all. So I'm going to again keep it very broad stroke. Um the key to this is you must work in a distribution priority area or DPA. Now what does that mean? If you have started looking at opportunities, you will have seen this term DPA already. Um and essentially the Australian federal government has said certain areas of Australia are there is a shortage of GPS and so we are opening this up for international recruitment.

There are other locations in Australia where it is not approved for DPA. So they're non DPA locations. So I'm going to tell you the difference between the two. And another way that they classify regions or locations catchment areas in Australia is by by the modified monash model. Okay, you may have heard of it as the monash scale as well. So that ranks from MM1 all the way up to MM7 and everything else in between. MM1 being the metropolitan areas. So that's the cities. Think of places like Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, their MM1.

The outer areas of those would be MM2. And then you've got MM3 all the way up to MM7, MM7. you're probably looking at these areas in in the outback of Australia, very rural, quite isolated. Okay, not perhaps for everyone. Now, one of the concerns is is a DPA location. Do you have to go to one of these rural areas? Well, that's not necessarily the case. Okay, so I'm just going to actually open up uh an interactive DPA map that we've put together, and we will provide access to this following this meeting.

So, you can go in and and have a play about with it. You can have a look at different locations and you can see what's what's good for you. Now this is a map of Australia. You will notice most of the locations where clinics are based are on the sort of uh coastal regions and that's the case for most of Australia. Um in here not too much going on. Um and these are the places that most people are interested in. Okay. So I'm just going to zoom in and take a quick case study. Okay.

You will notice that most of the map is a sort of pinky purple colour. Okay. And I'm going to zoom into Brisbane. So this is up in Queensland and you can also see the Gold Coast down here just on the south side as well. So you'll notice that that area, that metropolitan area is gray. Okay. So what that means is this area with all these clinics in the gray area is non DPA. So as an IMG going to Australia for the first time, you cannot work in this catchment area. you need to work in one of these purple zones.

Okay, the good news is there are lots of these locations where there's many DPA clinics. Ipswich is a suburb where I know we've had lots of lots of interviews for for GPS lately. 23 clinics in here equally Caboolture here 18 clinics we've and and uh Moryfield places like this where we've had interviews very recently only about 30 to 40 minutes outside of Brisbane. Okay. are very very um close and and well connected places like Tweed Heads as well very close to the Gold Coast. Why is this bit non DPA?

Well, the reason is they get plenty of Australian applicants applying to these positions and so the government has said we need to prioritize those applications. The places where we're struggling, this is where we will open up to IMGs. Okay, just going to take another quick case study. Where do I get asked about? Where else do I get asked about a lot? Melbourne. So, let's have a quick look at that as well. So, again, you can see as you come into that metro area, this is gray. So, that means it's non DPA.

But where can you work? Well, there's a suburb here with 56 practices. That's about 20 minutes from CBD. You've got suburb in here where they've now qualified as DPA. Places out here on the peripheral. You've got places like Jalong, which is only 1 hour from Melbourne. Uh this peninsula down here where there's lots of places. So if for example you're someone who has friends, family in Melbourne and you know that's where you want to go, don't panic. You can still go to this place, you're probably looking at one of these types of areas and equally you could live in Melbourne and commute out or equally this is going to be a lot more affordable than living in the center of the city by choosing one of these suburbs that's surrounding.

So there are plenty of options available to you. And I think the key myth sort of to to bust here today is that DPA area does not mean that you are going to be isolated in remote places in Australia. You can see by looking at the map pretty much the whole land mass of Australia is DPA for GPS. Okay, you'll have lots of other cities, small cities in these areas around here that will be very very suitable. And I guess the other thing to mention is just to be open-minded. Um, I get asked often about Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, but that's because they're the places that everyone has heard of before they've actually relocated to Australia.

In the same way, if you were coming to the UK for the first time, you probably asked me about London, Manchester, Birmingham. Not everyone ends up working in London and Manchester. And actually, if you were thinking about perhaps the before you move to the UK, if you are an IMG, um, you probably maybe you would choose to live in London, but a lot of people wouldn't, especially if you've got families and things like this. So again, the more affordable places are going to be perhaps towns and and and smaller cities that are not the ones you've heard of today or the one up until today.

So I would say keep your your options open. Um again, this map, if you need help navigating it, get in touch. We will share this with everyone so you can have a look because if you've got a particular suburb in mind, you'll be able to quickly go and check and see if it is DPA. And equally, if you're not sure, come and get in touch with us. Um, I'm just going to close back and go back to the presentation. Hopefully, that's given you a good idea of the types of locations that we're looking at.

The real costs of relocating

And so, we're going to move on to what are the costs associated with relocating. This might be a concern for for some of you. Obviously, relocating to a new country, there are going to be costs involved. The first part of this is the registration costs. Okay? So, you'll need to open up an AMC portfolio. That's about $642 Australian dollars. Primary source verification, you do need to verify three um credentials. Primary medical, your MRCGP, your CCT or your equivalent Irish um uh uh credentials.

You will need to to submit an APA application, which is about $1,500 Australian dollars. And then finally, you'll need your specialist registration fee, which is around $1,000. Okay, so in total that's about $3,000 for the registration costs. Okay, worth just comparing that again with what it was prior to 2024. About 12,000 for a comparability assessment. So good news is this is much more affordable. Equally, I've just put the UK pound equivalent on the right hand side. So if you want to work it out, it's about 50% of any figure that you see.

The current exchange rate I think is about 53 uh p to the Australian dollar. Um so 3,000 for your Apple registration is about 1,500 pounds. Okay. Visa costs. This is probably going to be the most expensive part for for most people, especially if you've got family. Okay. So you'll be relocating on something called a skills in demand or subclass 482 visa. very similar to a skilled worker visa here in the UK um in the sense that your dependent can come with you um but it's a temporary visa.

So main applicant and adult dependence the cost is $3,210 Australian per applicant. If you want the equivalent that's about 1,700 pounds child dependent is about $800 per applicant again about 425 pounds. So you can work out your own situation how much that is realistically going to cost you. For example, say that you're a family of four, two adults, two kids, then you're looking at around about 8,000 Australian, which is about 4,000 pounds. The good news about this is that you will probably only have to pay for one of these visas.

Reason being is you'll get at least a two-year contract. often they will appoint you on a 2-year visa or even anything up to a 4-year visa and you can actually apply for your permanent residency after 2 years in Australia. Okay? So, it's a much quicker process than it is here in the UK. No 5 years for your indefinite leave to remain. It's just 2 years with your employer and they will then sponsor you for permanent residency. Again, it's another sign that Australia is making it easier for IMGs.

Um, I know obviously in the UK it more difficult for them to get into training, more difficult to um, from a immigration perspective and so forth, but Australia is making it easier. What other costs do you need to consider? Flights, they're going to be variable dependent on your situation. Short-term accommodation if you need it when you arrive, again, is going to be variable. Um, so these are worth worth considering. The good news, relocation allowance. Now, most practices are going to offer this um in some form and so um you will likely find that um it could vary from anything from $5,000 Australian dollars, anything up to 20,000 Australian dollars.

Um and um it depends on really where you're happy to go to. It depends on the type of organisation you're joining. It depends on whether you're going to a really rural place. If you're going to a metro area, likely they're going to understandably offer you less cuz it's more competitive. Go to a really rural place, they're probably going to offer you slightly more. And the good news is that's going to cover most of these costs in a cash installment once you arrive in Australia.

GP earning potential in Australia

So, how much can a GP earn in Australia? Um, I'm going to talk about a couple of different things here. The first one is factors that will actually affect your earning potential. You'll notice at the on the first slide that I shared with you that there is a quite a big range. So 250 up to 500,000 Australian dollars. You might be thinking, well, which which one is it? Well, the truth is there are a number of different factors that are in going to implicate your income. And that's why we have to give a range.

And remember, it's not a salaried model. It is a fee for service model. And you're working as an independent contractor. Typical take-home example for a full-time GP. We will cover that. and then an overview of the typical billing models used. So what are the factors that will affect your income? First of all, the billing model. You may, if you've started looking at opportunities, you would have come across these terms, mixed billing and bulk billing. Dependent on which type of clinic that you go to, there is a different way of operating, a different way of fee collection and so forth.

So it is going to affect your income. Um, and we're going to talk about that in one of the following slides. Patient volume. Again, remember it's fee for service independent contractor. So, no salary, meaning the more patients you see, the more you're going to earn. So, whether you want to break that down as number of patients you see per hour, number per day, number per week, you'll be able to work out what it is that you're going to earn. Working hours and out of hours, again, sort of self-explanatory.

If you're working um more hours, you're going to see more patients and you're going to earn more. uh out of hours. Some of them uh some of the clinics will provide out of hours service. This is not mandatory. It's always optional. And if you want to do that, they will probably provide you with a better service fee agreement that than your standard clinic working hours. Service fee percentage. This is going to have a big impact. Okay? So, you will have some kind of contract arrangement with your employer where they will take a percentage of your billings and you will keep the rest.

Okay? So typical uh fee agreement might be 70% to the GP and 30% to the practice. Like Mahib mentioned earlier, what does that 30% cover? Well, it's all the support staff. It's a room to operate out of. It keeps the lights on. It's the admin um fee uh admin costs and everything associated with it so that you can turn up, see patients and make money. 30 70% is pretty usual split either or 35 65%. You will see a range anything from sort of 40 60 up to 7525 although they're quite unique those offers.

Um so yeah a 7030 is pretty good. Um and then finally item number optimization. Um what do we mean by this? Well, every different type of consult that you have or procedure that you have will be charged at a different itemized cost. Okay? So, earnings will vary dependent on the complexity. You'll have a standard consult fee which might be a 10-minute or 15 minute appointment. You'll then have a longer um consult fee and then you will also have different fees associated with mental health care plans, chronic disease management, procedural skills like I mentioned.

um all of them will have a different itemized cost. So this is really where you get to supplement your income and increase it significantly. Okay, by doing additional procedural work um and chronic care plans or mental health assessments, whatever it may be. Okay, again location might have a factor over what you're going to earn. Rural and regional areas may offer more attractive fee arrangements or additional incentives in the form of a bonus to work in those rural places. the metro areas perhaps not so much.

Again, all of these factors, we are here to help you. If you're not sure when you're arranging your contract, we can help guide you. We can also help with that negotiation to make sure that you're getting a contract that you're happy with.

Fee-for-service billing models

So, the fee for service models. So, as I said, you probably if you've started looking at roles, you may be familiar with these um different billing mechanisms. If you haven't yet, you probably don't know. So first of all, let's talk about bulk billing. Um, so there's no out of pocket cost to the patient. It's accessible to all. Okay? Much like the NHS, what does this mean in practice for you, someone working in the clinic? Well, you're probably going to have shorter consultation times.

They might be 10 to 15 minutes. You're probably going to have higher patient volume, so you're maybe seeing five to six patients per hour if you're very busy. Um and you are likely to receive some additional or you will receive some additional incentives. Okay. So the federal government has announced a um bulk billing um incentive program. Okay. So it's 12.5% quarterly loading meaning they pay out 12% to the practice for any fee that you have generated as a bulk billing GP. and you get to keep 50% of that practice keep 50%.

And that means that every 3 months you're paid out additional incentive in a in a lump sum. You also get to triple bulk bill on eligible items. Like I mentioned earlier, there's higher itemized costs for mental health consultations, health assessments, chronic care plans, after hours, and so forth. Simple admin. Okay, so Medicare billing, there's no gap collection. Okay, which is different to the mix bill billing model which I'm going to come on to. In practice, this does mean requires a higher patient throughput to maximize your income.

Okay, per consult income is capped at the Medicare schedule fee, meaning that lower per consult fee on average um and slightly higher patients. So, let's contrast that with mixed billing. So, why is there a higher per consult income? Well, this is because it's partially private. Some patients pay a gap fee on top of the Medicare um fee. Okay. So, what does that mean for you? Longer consultation times, likely 15 minutes, sometimes 20 minutes. I think Mahib referred to earlier. Average of 18-minute appointments.

That's probably quite familiar for most GPS working in a mixed billing practice. Patient volume is going to be moderate. You're probably more like seeing four patients per hour. So, it's higher per consult income, fewer patients per day, so longer, more flexible consultation times. If you're someone that likes to spend a lot of time with your patients and give them that care, you may be opting for this route flexibility. So you can actually choose in most cases where you want to bulk bill and where you want to mix bill, okay?

Or where you want to privately bill. So for example, you may bulk bill pensioners and children under a certain age. I know I spoke to a practice um yesterday who said we bulk bill everyone under 10 years old and then all the pensioners as well. Everyone else in between pays a gap fee on top. Um, bulk billing incentive still claimed on any bulk build consultation. However, you do not receive the 12.5% loading that is available for a fully bulk billing clinic. So, you don't get that incentive quarterly.

Moderate admin gap payments require collection process. There's a little bit more admin involved than a bulk billing practice. And this is again not a free service for the majority of patients. Majority of patients are going to pay a gap fee. Um hopefully that's given you a sort of overview about the difference between the two practices uh between the two billing mechanisms. I would say it's about a 50/50% uh 50% split in terms of half bulk billing half mix billing across Australia.

Although a lot now are shifting to bulk billing because of the uh bulk billing incentive that government is offering. Again, if you're not sure which is the best one for you, speak to us. We'll be able to guide you based on the way that you you work, what your motivations are as to what will be best.

Live demo: the GP Pay Estimator

So, what's the typical salary for a full-time GP? We have looked at this earlier sl in in um but I'm going to cover this in a bit more detail. So I have put all three billing models here. So you've got fully private on the right hand side and that's really in just for a contrast. You can see that if you go fully private, you're going to see less patients. You're going to be charging higher per patient. This is probably not going to be a type of uh setup that you would be working in as someone who's going to Australia for the first time.

And the reason for probably less than 5% are fully private and most of them are established GPS in Australia who who are working in those who've built up a a um you know a patient list for over a number of years and have loyal uh patients. Most likely you're going to go to mix billing or bulk billing. So let's focus on these two. You can see the different in appointment length and patients per hour. Um the key thing that I want to just highlight here is the total bill per consult.

So you can see the difference between bulk billing and the average in a mixed billing practice. This is going to be higher in mixed billing, lower in bulk billing. And then you can see based on a 45 weeks per year what you're going to be earning. So again, this is a very conservative estimate because we are only taking into account the standard billing consult uh or standard uh 15 minute appointment for example. Um, so we're looking at $644 or $82. We're not taking into account any additional procedural work that you're doing, any additional care plans you're doing.

All of that is supplement on top. Okay? So, if you're working full-time, this is the figure that you're looking at approximately if you're in a bulk billing practice, and this is the figure in a mixed billing practice. The reason that it's worth showing to you, they're very similar incomes and they're not going there's not going to be a huge difference just by the simple fact whether you go to a bulk billing or mix billing practice. There's going to be a number of other factors that are going to impact this.

Um, and part of the reason for that is the incentive that the government offers fully bulk billing practices. One thing I want to share with you today just going to link away again from the um presentation and share with you another tool that we have built. Okay. So you will have access to this following this webinar as well. So you can go go in and have a have a play about uh and see what exactly you think you might the way that you might operate and see what you think you'll be earning.

Okay. So for example, we can change all of this. So you're in a mix billing practice. I spoke to a mix billing practice yesterday that said their their fees are set at $94 uh per consult. Uh and you might decide, well, actually, I'm I'm not going to work 5 days. I'm going to work 4.5 days um per week. So, I'm going to have a half day on a Friday. Um, and I've arranged with my um my clinic that actually it's uh it's going to be 70% um initially and perhaps I'm thinking I'll probably see about I don't know 28 patients per day on average.

And there we go. We can see what the figure is approximating. Again, this is conservative because we're not incorporating any of the fees you're generating from surg uh from procedural stuff from additional uh health plans that you're doing. Again, if you're thinking, well, actually, I have arranged an agreement with my clinic that's they're going to pay me 72%. And I'm actually going to see 32 patients per day, then you can see what the estimated annual income is. Again, you might decide, well, actually, I'm going to roll back my hours.

I've been in in Australia for a couple of years. I'm going to only work three days a week and then you can see what your earnings are going to be again. Okay, so have a play about with that. Hopefully that's helpful um to give you an estimation of what you can possibly earn. Just uh before you go on Hunter, I just wanted to go back to that calculator. I just want to point out something for everyone is um that to make it fairly comparable to what would be common in the UK. You can see that Hunter's put in here working weeks per year is 45.

Because a common mistake people will think, oh, I'll charge this much, see this many patients, 5 days, and then multiply by 52. That would overestimate. We're being realistic. 45 working weeks means that you can have 6 weeks off and one week for study. That's very similar to a lot of uh practices in the UK where people will have six weeks annual leave and one week for study. Yeah, absolutely. I think I think the key with this is we're trying to be conservative because we don't want to promise the world.

Um because obviously this is a significant increase on an NHS salary anyway. Um the reality is though if I come back to this page and we're looking at a realistic salary range. If you're working full-time, you're going to be looking at this upper limit. You're going to be close to that whether you're in a mixed billing practice or bulk billing. And I mean once you're established and once you include any of the additional um uh consult fees on top whe you know um procedural stuff and and additional plans.

So um realistically for anyone who is comparing this with an NHS salary you are looking at doubling your income. That is possible perhaps even tripling your income in the long term. Um that is realistic.

How BDI supports your move

So finally from me uh how can oh actually there is a couple of slides after this but how can BDI support you? So as Mahib had sort of alluded to earlier we've been helping international doctors relocate for about 10 years now. Um I've been doing this for about uh eight years in total six years with BDI. Um so what does this look like for you? Well we'd start off with a role search. Um so extensive search across our network of practices. We work with large organisations who have many practices.

We also work with the small independent clinics as well. We'll find uh a role that suits you based on your interests and your p your personal preferences. Once we've got a position you're happy with, we'll then negotiate a contract that you're happy with as well. Okay. really important that we get the the billing percentage right, the guaranteed earnings, supervision arrangements, relocation allowance, um everything that you need to be assured that this is the right move for you.

Once you're happy with that, we'll move on to the app registration. Okay, we referenced the step-by-step guide earlier quite briefly. We'd give you a more indepth knowledge of this at this by this stage and we'd also guide you through it step by step. So, we'd make it nice and smooth for you. And again, we'd work with the clinic to make sure that they have the supervised practice plan in place for you, ready for approval. Once you've had your registration granted, would move on to your visa uh support.

So, you would be sponsored on a 482 skills and demand visa. So, the employ the employer would nominate you for one of these visas. You'll then make your application. when you do. So, if you're going to one of the large networks, they may put you in touch with an immigration agent um to help you through that process. If you're going to a smaller independent, they probably aren't going to have an immigration agent in place. Nothing to panic about. You can do this on your own. Just make sure you have the documentation correct.

Try and do everything properly. If you do want that additional support of an immigration agent, we can put someone in touch, but there are obviously costs involved with that. Um, once you've got your visa back, pastoral care throughout. Um, just to let you know the way that I work because I'm trying to bridge the gap between, well, I'm based here in in the UK because I'm trying to bridge the gap in the the the time difference or bridge the time difference with Australia. I'm often up at 6:00 a.m.

having client meetings at 11:00 at night doing interviews. The reason I'm mentioning this, I will make myself available for you 24/7. If you need have questions, have concerns. If it's out of hours, don't worry. Get in touch. Bring, you know, bring your questions, your concerns to me. We'll try and find a solution. Uh, and we're here to help and support throughout. Um, accommodation and school. So, that pastoral care goes all the way through to helping you find accommodation, schools, practical relocation advice.

For some doctors, you prefer to take that all into your own hands. Fine. For others, you need that additional support. we can help you with. Um, and truthfully, most clinics across Australia, they're very, very welcoming. They will help out where they can. They'll introduce you to local GP networks as well, so you can hit the ground running when you arrive. Finally, from me, our fee is paid entirely by the employer. Okay? Really important. Never the candidate. So, there's no fee for our service attached to uh get, you know, getting in touch with us um or helping you secure a position.

All right? No hidden charges, no repeat fees, no obligation. Every GP we work with receives the same level of personal attention regardless of where they end up placing. All we ask for in return is honesty, transparency. That's all we ask for. Okay.

Frequently asked questions

Um so hopefully um that will be helpful for you to know about how we can can support you. I'm now just going to move on to some of the frequently asked questions. So first of all, do I have to work in a rural or remote area or can I live in a near city? Well, hopefully we answered that with the DPA map. There are many DPA locations that are very, very close to the main cities. Okay, so those outer metro areas, you could be 30 minutes, 40 minutes from the main city, whether that's Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, wherever you want to be, Perth.

Yes, you can live and work near a city. You don't have to go to the outback. We're not going to send you there if you don't want to. Maybe you want to. I know some some doctors want to go and do a rural fellowship and go and work there. Equally, that's that's brilliant. How long does the whole process take from decision to arrival? Mentioned this earlier, probably 4 to 6 months. I would say realistically 6 months. Um again, most GP clinics are going to be happy to start looking at meeting with you 9 to 12 months out from the point of when you're going to relocate.

They do start the process early. Um worth actually mentioning that visa processing is different for everyone. depends on the complexity of your application, depends on the number of uh dependents, um depends if you have all your documentation done correctly. I've had some doctors that have had their visa approved in one week. I've had others that applied in December and are still awaiting an outcome. So, it really depends on your application. Do I need to pass any clinical exams to register in Australia?

Mahib mentioned this earlier. No clinical exams, okay? As long as you have your MRCGP and your CCT in the UK or if you're from Ireland and you have your equivalent qualifications there, MICGP and your completion of training, you do not need to do any additional clinical exams. Can I bring my family with me to Australia? Yes, absolutely. Much like the UK, we have a dependent visa system and so if you're sponsoring a 482 visa, they will be able to come with you. I have had a couple of questions about um parents being relocated as dependent.

That's where it proves quite difficult. If you want to go down that route, if you feel like you've got parents that are qualified as uh dependents, then you would probably need to speak to an immigration lawyer to get approval on that. It's not something I can guide you on. The criteria is quite strict. Um so for most cases, it's unlikely. Um but absolutely, wife, husband, children, no problem. What's the cost of living like in Australia compared to the UK? and will I be better off financially?

Really important topic of of conversation at the moment. If you've lived in the UK last 5 to 10 years, you'll keep seeing costs going up, whether it's your, you know, cost of renting a property, groceries, fuel costs, and so forth. I can't promise you in Australia, it's going to be much cheaper. Um, there are more affordable places to live. But equally, if you if you want to go and live near Sydney or in Brisbane, Melbourne, it is going to be quite expensive. Um, but the key here is you are going to be earning significantly higher, right?

You are financially going to be better off because you're probably going to be earning twice the amount in Australia. Will I be able to achieve fellowship of the RACGP after relocating via the expedited route? Important thing to mention here, the expedited route is not automatic um status of uh does not automatically give you fellowship status, right? So this is not an application to become a fellow. This is an application to get um specialist registration and to be able to bill Medicare from day one.

The good news if you are a UK trained or Irish trained GP, you will be able to apply for fellowship after you've completed 6 months of supervision. So once that 6 months is over, conditions on your registration are removed. You can then apply for fellowship status. It will be approved. There's no additional exams that you need to do. I think there's a cost of $990 if I'm not mistaken, something like that. Um, and you have to complete a questionnaire and something else, but there's no exams and they will approve you as a fellow in Australia.

And I know that'll be important to many of you. Can I get permanent residency in Australia as a GP? Yes, spoke about this briefly earlier. 2 years on a 482 visa and you can apply for permanent residency. You will be sponsored by your employer to do so. Um, nice and nice and straightforward, which means you probably don't have to pay for multiple visas. Um, just your initial visa. Um, I know some I'm sure some some GPS might be asking the question about PR from day one. Um, it is technically possible.

However, it's very very difficult. There's high um processing times or or long processing times for that. And equally, you are not looking at a um financially beneficial model. you're looking at the or or the contract model. You're looking at a salaried model which is probably not going to it's probably going to sort of uh not be the reason one of the reasons you're moving to Australia is to financially gain. Um you're not going to receive that for at least 2 years if you go through that route and most clinics are not going to offer that.

99% of GPS relocating to Australia are going to go on a 482 visa to start with and then get PR once they are in Australia.

Live Q&A

So, someone's asked, while I appreciate that you're an independent contractor and you could choose how much or how little you work, is there a minimum to maintain the 482 visa? Yes. So, it is although it's not actually written into Australian law, um, to the best of my knowledge, there is an expectation to work on a 482 visa that you would do a minimum of 30 hours on average. That is what they sort of stipulate or what they consider to be anything less than 30 hours is part-time.

And so whilst before you get permanent residency, you will be expected by your employer to work a minimum of 30 hours per week during that initial 2-year period. Um, you know, that would be the expectation. So, I would go into this with with that sort of mindset. How tax rates in Australia compare to UK? Yeah, really important. Um, I think first thing to mention is this is Australia is is not like some places in the Middle East where I know that, you know, tax rates are really low and you're going to pay little to nothing in tax.

Australia has a progressive tax system. It is quite similar to the UK in that sense. Even though you're working as an independent contractor, you will still be paying similar tax rates. So I would say in general you're probably look if you're a high earner you're probably looking at paying in the region of around 35 to 40% in tax. Um I read an article uh actually earlier today that that was saying it was an averaging around 38%. The good thing is as an independent contractor you can um a lot of your costs you can have uh um you know anything that's work related whether it's your indemnity insurance your um cost for registration and so forth can be you essentially you won't have to pay the tax on that income.

So, there are lots of smart ways that you can uh financially benefit from um paying for a number of these costs um which is is beneficial to you, but generally speaking, you're going to pay a similar level of tax to what you do in in the UK, might be slightly less. A couple of people have asked about age. Um they may have read about this age cut off of 45. Yes. you just go a little bit more into detail about that and about permanent residence and how it might impact that. Yeah, absolutely.

So there you will hear a lot about the 45 year mark. Okay. So it is true that uh for permanent residency um applications that there is a 45 year mark that you need to apply before your 45th birthday. However, there are exemptions. Okay. One of them being if you're working in a location um that is considered um where there's a shortage of GPS. So if you've spent 2 years working in an area that's considered a shortage of GPS and I think most EPA clinics would would um make you eligible for this then you will still be able to apply for permanent residency as long as your employer sponsors you after the age of 45.

The other um impact or the other sorry factor is your income. Okay. So if you um are high earner, which you would be expected to be, that's the other sort of criteria you need to meet. So the good news, if you're over the age of 45 and you're concerned about that rule, you will initially have to relocate on a uh 482 visa, you probably will do that for 2 years. As long as you stay with the same employer and you're in an area where there is a shortage of GPS, and that's probably going to is going to be DPA, um then you will be able to be sponsored for permanent residency.

Someone's asked what would happen to your UK NHS pension if you work abroad. So if you've been in the NHS pension for more than two years, you at that point are locked into the pension. What that means is you can't ask for a refund of what you've paid. Less than two years, if you want to leave, you can get a refund of what you paid less tax because you remember you got tax deducted at the time. They'll take that back. So you don't get back everything that you know as much as you put in because you got a tax benefit and you'll be taxed now.

Um but what will happen is if you've been in more than two years what you've already paid in will stay there and continue to grow but you won't be able to access it until you reach pension age. So you know when you're 67 some of you are young. So by the time you get to it will change. You'll be 68 maybe 69. At that point you will get probably a small pension if the rest of your time was in Australia because it would have been the number of years of service and the average that you had.

You know there's a formula based on that and then it does grow. It's index linked. So they do take account of inflation and add a bit more on top. But you wouldn't be adding to that. What you would do though is in Australia you could choose to take a pension there or you could pay into a private pension here for example. Okay. But what you've paid into NHS, if you've paid into it for more than 2 years, that's basically locked and we'll continue to talk and you'll get a small pension based on that.

Could you work in the UK while you're on your holidays to stay on the performance list? It's an excellent question. I actually would recommend that maybe the first year use some of your annual leave, come back and just do a few sessions in the UK enough that you and you know do an appraisal in the UK just so that you stay in the cycle and you might need to fill in if you're doing less than 40 sessions in the UK, you might be asked to fill in a low volume uh of work. How how are you keeping up to date if you're doing less than 40 sessions?

Well, you can say, well, I'm still working as a GP in a comparable system and still show that you're still doing CPD, you know, do your appraisal. What that would allow you to do is that as Hunter said, usually a contract's going to be for 2 years initially and then after that you might get permanent residence and then you've got more flexibility. By that time, you probably know, do you want to stay there long term? Sometimes people go, they might enjoy the work, but for example, a family member, you know, you got an older parent and they get an illness that, you know, you didn't know was going to come out of the blue and you think, I want to be closer to my mom.

I need to be there to care for her. And so sometimes people come back and that could happen in any job anywhere. Sometimes it doesn't work out, right? Something else happens outside of the job's control, outside of your control. And so what that allows you to do by doing a few sessions, staying on top of your appraisal, it would allow you just to stay on the performance and just walk back into a job here. Okay? Whereas if for 2 years or more you've not worked at all in the UK and you're off the performance list, if you then want to come back to work in the UK, you'd have to go through the returner scheme, which will need exams and a period of supervised practice.

And so it's not as straightforward as just staying back. I would only recommend you do that really for that first year or two until you get your your PR. And that's because to do that long term is not really sustainable. You need your holiday to have a break. Do you see? Um so it's okay for a year to do it. It's okay for 18 months. By that time, you probably know what's happening, right? To keep doing that every year is not really sustainable. You want to use your holiday to have a holiday, to have a break.

Could we practice as a GP with specialist interest or extended role in the UK like in the UK? Absolutely. It's very common for Australian GPS to do a lot more procedural things and you get a higher payment for that. So, for example, I you know, some of you might know I did orthopedics before I did GP. And so, you know, I had a private practice here in the UK. And so you we would charge more if I was doing a joint injection than if I was doing a straight consult seeing someone and you know maybe examining it and just prescribing something or giving advice.

Similarly in Australia if you're doing a procedure the fee for that is going to be more than if you're just seeing someone and giving a a prescription and those that have already got those skills or if you wanted to work towards getting additional qualifications and developing you know if you can do excisions for basal cell carcinomas Australia the flip side of having twice as much sunshine as the UK there's a lot more incidence of skin cancers in Australia compared to the UK and so you know if you can do procedure like biopsies, like uh shave excisions.

If you can actually get accredited and excise basal cell carcinomas, you get a significantly higher rate than a normal consult. And similarly, you could potentially if you've got other skills already or wanted to develop them, you could do other things like joint injections, like fitting coils, implants, um and you'd get a higher rate for those things. I don't know if you want to add anything to that, Hunter. Yeah, the the only thing I I would add is just from from my experience speaking to a number of clinics, um when we ask about subspecialty area interest, you know, if there's anything essential, often they just say whatever skills that you have, we will utilize them.

Um I mean if you great if you have you know subspecialty interest or or skills in in in things like dermatology procedural stuff uh equally women's health is is is something that comes up a lot. Um but whatever skills you can bring to the table they will often utilize and they're not mandatory. Um but h yeah absolutely there's the procedural work is one of the ways that a lot of GPS will significantly supplement their income. So, um, just in summary, just to recap, um, what's on offer?

Well, it's a lifestyle change, better work life balance, more autonomy, more control over the way that you work. Um, in Australia, you've got a higher earning potential as well with this fee for service model and working as an independent contractor. And why is this a good time to go? Well, it's a simplified registration pathway with the expedited route. Reduce processing time, less cost involved. Um, so a lifechanging move awaits you. So please do um get in touch and any questions you have, any anything you're not sure about, we can can answer them.

If we don't have the answers, we'll go away and and and find them. Uh, and then just finally, just if you want to have a read of some of our reviews, please go ahead, go on Google, you'll see we've got more than 400 five-star reviews from our candidates that we've placed um at 2,000 doctors. We've helped more than 2,000 doctors international with international relocation. Been doing this quite established for 10 years and we've recruited doctors from 46 different countries around the world.

So, um, yes, that's that's everything from me. Great. And really to say a huge thank you for Hunter for really going into that in a huge amount of depth. Thank you to the rest of the BDI team that have been in the background answering questions, but also preparing things um, you know, to get this ready and get you on board. So, a huge thank you to Daniel and Ryan. If you're interested is do get in touch with the team um and you know ask any questions, get clarity on anything that you're not sure and some of you might have some specific questions um that you want to follow up on.

Get in touch and the team will be able to support you. A huge thank you again to the whole uh BDI team. Thank you so much Hunter, Daniel, Ryan. Thank you again to all of you for joining. Like we always say, Emedica, prepare and you will succeed.