Australia and New Zealand Psychiatrists with International Qualifications Committee

The Overseas Trained Psychiatrists’ Representative Committee (OTPRC) was established by the RANZCP in 2008 to formally represent Affiliate Members and ‘overseas-trained psychiatrists’ within the RANZCP. In 2024, the RANZCP Board formally approved a change in the name of this committee to, Australia and New Zealand Psychiatrists with International Qualifications Committee (ANZPIQC). The change denotes that these Affiliates and Fellows of the College are Australia and/or New Zealand psychiatrists who have an international qualification in psychiatry, moving away from the term “overseas-trained” with the pejorative meanings that are often attached.

The ANZPIQ Committee reports to the RANZCP Board via the CEO, and provides formal representation for all overseas trained psychiatrists and especially Affiliate Members within the College organisational structure. The ANZPIQ Committee consists of overseas trained psychiatrists from each Australian State/Territory and New Zealand. Only members of the College, both Affiliates and Fellows, can be appointed as committee members.

What we do

Some of the ANZPIQ Committee's main goals include:

Ensuring fairness for PIQs
Supporting PIQs
Improve our “marketing” and communication.

Fairness is about pass rates exams, how PIQs are treated by the RANZCP, AHPRA, AMC, Department of Immigration etc. The Substantial Comparability pathway needs to be set up fairly; the Competency Based Fellowship Program too.

Support is about helping PIQs as a group and as individuals. Support in passing exams, maybe developing or supporting an exam preparation program. The Committee communicates regularly with all PIQs to identify possible avenues of support.

Marketing and communication is not a goal in itself, but a way to reach the first two goals.

Our mission is to ensure fairness for, and to support all, internationally trained psychiatrists.

Responsibilities

facilitating local support networks for PIQs
representing the Committee on other College standing committees pursuant to the regulations of any such committee and be consulted in the recruitment and endorsement of PIQ representatives on such committee
recommending individuals for consideration for involvement on other key College committees, project teams and working parties from time to time
providing advice on such initiatives that might assist PIQs in their work experiences, acculturation and preparation for examinations for admission to Fellowship
providing advice on potential representation by Affiliate Members on key committees and project teams
facilitating forums to collect and disseminate information, to encourage debate and to promote the needs of PIQs generally
monitoring all activities across the College that are of relevance to PIQs, to promote both coordination of those activities as well as efficient communication.

A Jurisdictional Member of the Committee will also hold the ANZPIQ Committee Representative position on the respective Branch Committee.

Chair

The Chair of the ANZPIQ Committee is Dr Ajay Vijayakrishnan.

Members

ANZPIQ Committee members for 2024 - 2027:

Dr Ajay Vijayakrishnan	Chair and VIC Representative	[email protected]
Dr Emma Crampin	Deputy Chair and WA Representative	[email protected]
Dr Dharshanie Gunaratne	ACT Representative	[email protected]
Dr Sachin Rai	NSW Representative	[email protected]
Dr Samuele Manfrinati	NZ Representative	[email protected]
Dr Suman Kumar Sinha	NZ Representative	[email protected]
Dr Gagan Deep Garg	NT Representative	[email protected]
Dr Varuni De Silva	SA Representative	[email protected]
Dr Hammad Mahmoud	TAS Representative	[email protected]
Dr Shavindra Dias	QLD Representative	[email protected]

Meeting frequency

The Committee typically meet 5 times per calendar year:

1 face-to-face meeting (6 hours in duration)
4 videoconference meetings (1 to 2 hour duration per meeting).

A committee member may also be required to respond to emails between formal meetings.

Get involved

To have a more powerful voice in the RANZCP and to be able to reach our goals, the ANZPIQ Committee needs as many internationally trained psychiatrists as possible to be involved in the activities of the RANZCP.

Become an ANZPIQ representative. Look out for the call for nominations early in the year and nominate as an ANZPIQ representative.
Become a RANZCP Affiliate Member.

How to keep in touch with the ANZPIQ Committee

There are several ways to keep in touch with the ANZPIQ Committee and for us to reach you.

From time to time we will need to ask for your opinion directly and with a short response time and will send out emails directly to you; we ask that you please read these and provide your feedback. You can receive these emails from a committee member directly or via College staff members who support the ANZPIQ Committee administratively. Please keep the College updated with your current email address.

Resources

The Distribution Priority Areas (DPA) for GPs and Districts of Workforce Shortage (DWS) for specialists are updated every year to ensure the latest available data is used to accurately target distribution. The DPA and DWS systems facilitate placing medical practitioners with location restrictions (International Medical Graduates and Australian Bonded Doctors) into communities of greatest need across Australia. Further details about these classification systems can be found at the Department of Health website.

Contact

You can contact the ANZPIQ Committee on [email protected]