By LAUREN POLLARD.

Imagine working, studying and training for 4+ years to become a doctor.

You want to work in Australia, you want to save lives, you want to ease pain and you want to become an integral part of the Australian health system. A system that is currently struggling to support itself. A system that is relying on the recruitment of 2500 foreign doctors each year.

Now, imagine graduating from your degree at one of Australia’s best universities and not being able to work because while the system is crying out for doctors: we don’t have enough intern places to do the final training for those who want to be doctors.

My 21-year old sister is a first-year medical student at the University of Sydney. Like so many other students, she has had to sacrifice so much in order to pursue her dream of one day being a doctor.

The hours are long, the training rigorous and the expectations placed upon them are excruciating. The thought of her jumping through all these hurdles only to be told ‘sorry’ at the end of 4 long years, is unimaginable.

And yet this is exactly what’s happening to 182 international students who have just finished their Australian studies to become medical professionals.

They’ve been trained to meet Australian standards and desperately want to work. Yet State and Federal governments are fighting over whose responsibility it is to fund their internship places – and without an internship these doctors cannot practice in Australia.

These students have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to train in our prestigious hospitals and medical schools with the hope of working for the Australian health system. And now it looks like it might all have been for nothing.

How did this happen?

Under the Howard Government in 2004, there was an increase in the number of medical students trained within Australia. Unfortunately, the lack of one single government body being responsible for medical training and funding across Australia has resulted in a health system that has not been prepared to deal with the increased numbers of graduates.