In an attempt to address the state’s medical staffing shortages, lawmakers are considering a measure that would allow graduates from certain foreign medical schools to seek licensure in Hawaiʻi.
The measure would exempt some foreign medical graduates from the mandatory two-year residency requirement if they have already completed two years of higher-level clinical training comparable to a U.S. accredited program, and have passed the United States Medical Licensing Exam.
To work in a specialty that no one licensed in the state provides, a foreign medical graduate would just have to pass the licensing exam.
Hawaiʻi Pacific Health Vice President of Government Relations Mike Robinson explained that this is a step forward to attract more doctors to Hawaiʻi.
”We have a severe crisis in recruiting physicians here,” he said. "I think that this is a good step in the right direction to make Hawaiʻi competitive with other states to ensure that we can rely on what might be the last core of folks that could help our shortage, which would be physicians that are trained outside of our United States.”
It would largely be left to the Hawaiʻi State Medical Board to decide whether a person is qualified. But the board’s president said that they may not have the expertise to make some of those decisions, particularly about whether an international program matches the standards of U.S. programs.
The bill passed out of the House Consumer Protection Committee and will next be heard by the full House.
