Dept defends treatment of hunger striker

The immigration department is defending the level of health care on offer to a critically ill asylum seeker, as doctors on Manus Island plead for him to be sent to Australia.

Friday marks the 100th day of Mohammad Albederee's hunger strike protesting against a lack of medical treatment for kidney and shoulder problems, after an alleged assault by guards at the detention centre last year.

"This individual continues to receive appropriate clinical care (at the Manus Island detention centre)," a department spokesman told AAP in a statement, maintaining that the care was broadly comparable with health services available to the Australian community.