A Papua New Guinean doctor trained in Turkey says she has waited nine months for registration from the PNG Medical Board, raising concerns over delays and the lack of a clear licensing process for overseas-trained graduates.
Dr. Sylvania Anisa said she returned to the country ready to work after completing a decade of education and clinical training overseas but has yet to receive approval to practice.
Dr. Anisa completed Grade 12 at Paradise College in Port Moresby and later studied at the University of Papua New Guinea before enrolling in a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery program at Gaziantep University in Turkey.
Her training included a year-long internship with rotations in pediatrics, internal medicine, emergency medicine, psychiatry, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, public health, and rural health.
However, despite submitting her application, Dr. Anisa said there has been little communication from the PNG Medical Board about the status of her registration.
“It is heartbreaking to return home wanting to serve my people and be met with silence,” she said.
“There is no clear process for foreign-trained graduates to obtain a license. There has been no transparency, no formal updates, and no indication of how long the process will take.”
Dr. Anisa said the lack of a standardized licensing system in Papua New Guinea was contributing to long delays for overseas-trained graduates.
Unlike countries such as Australia and the United States, PNG does not have a national medical licensing examination or a digitized credential verification system.
Applications are processed manually, with no publicly available information on processing times.
“We don’t have a standardized exam or international verification system,” she said. “In Australia, documents can be verified within a week. Here, it has taken nine months.”
The delays come as Papua New Guinea continues to face a shortage of medical professionals. According to World Health Organization data, PNG has around 0.5 physicians for every 10,000 people.
Dr. Anisa said prolonged delays risk discouraging qualified Papua New Guineans trained overseas from returning home to work.
The PNG Medical Board had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.