According to the RACGP’s annual report, 99.9% of GPs have stayed loyal to its CPD home.
Despite some big talk (ahem ahem) about medical colleges potentially losing members with the advent of CPD homes, the first 18 months of the scheme has seen very few GPs abandon ship.
In January 2024, reforms came into effect which ended the medical college monopoly on continuing professional development and allowed doctors to move their CPD to Australian Medical Council-accredited third-party organisations.
Theoretically, a fellowed doctor could now cut ties with their training college and pay considerably less to manage and record their CPD activities with one of five approved, non-college, CPD homes.
These include CPD Home, which is operated by AMA WA, Osler Technology, the Skin Cancer College of Australasia, the Health Education and Training Institute and CPD Australia.
The cheapest of these starts at just $219 per year, ongoing.
But GPs are proving to be a loyal bunch; according to the RACGP’s annual report for 2024-2025, 99.9% of members continued to use the college as their CPD home for the last financial year.
The RACGP credited its “commitment to excellence and continuous improvement” for the retainment rate, also citing “efforts to anticipate what members want from their CPD home”.
In another section of the report, it revealed its plans for the CPD of the future.
“The RACGP has embraced artificial intelligence, recognising a need for continued education and development of an AI Governance Framework,” the report said.
“The Information Technology team provided AI training programs for employees and will continue to focus on AI education.
“The College is currently piloting an AI Vault and a CPD Virtual Assistant, which will provide members with 24-hour access to a virtual call centre for CPD enquiries. Both are scheduled for release in late 2025.”
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While the college may have avoided losing its current members to third-party CPD homes, there is another threat potentially waiting in the wings; overseas-fellowed specialist GPs who have obtained fast-track registration.
The GPs who come in through this route have their fellowship from either the Irish College of General Practitioners, the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners or the Royal College of General Practitioners officially recognised as equivalent to RACGP fellowship.
Where these doctors previously would have been somewhat forced into college membership, they can now skip this step entirely.
Technically speaking, these GPs do not ever have to join a college – just a CPD home.
Given that the pathway only opened in October 2024, partway into the last financial year, it is likely too early to tell whether an absence of these new members affects the RACGP’s revenue in terms of membership.
According to the college’s revenue report, CPD program fees accounted for $2.2 million over the last financial year and membership fees alone accounted for $42.6 million.
The largest chunk of revenue, though, was the Australian General Practice Training Grant. This was worth $134.8 million.
All told, the RACGP made a surplus of $8.3 million for the 2024-25 financial year.
It’s a fall from the $19.7 million total surplus that it reported last year, but this was explained away as a result of one-off gains in 2023-24 and delayed expenditure in 2024-25.
“When removing the one-off gains in 2023-24 and delayed expenditure relating to strategic projects, the 2024-25 underlying operating surplus was comparable across both financial years – $4.8 million in 2024-25 versus $5.3 million in 2023-24 – indicating continued success of the College through its main operational activity,” the report said.
The college’s biggest expense was staffing, which accounted for about 68% of expenditure.
Around $332,500 went to the RACGP president, and $640,500 went to the CEO.
