While the overall number of overseas-trained GPs coming into Australia increased by 30% last year, fewer went through the RACGP’s pathway.
AHPRA’s fast-track registration process for internationally-qualified specialist GPs is indeed working to attract more doctors to Australia – but these doctors aren’t necessarily joining the RACGP.
On Tuesday, the Medical Board of Australia released a series of reports looking at the different pathways for specialist international medical graduates (SIMGs) vying to become registered specialist doctors in Australia.
Notably, these reports captured data from the first full calendar year with the new expedited SIMG program as an option.
Of the 465 doctors granted specialist registration through the new program – which essentially bypasses Australian medical college assessments – 408 work in general practice.
Looking at the total number of applications for specialist GPs, the split between the RACGP-led pathway and the Medical Board of Australia-led pathway was close to equal.
In fact, the new program proved so popular that the RACGP recorded a decrease in the number of applicants it received through its regular, non-expedited specialist registration pathway.
The medical board believes this effect was caused by doctors who would have previously gone through the specialist pathway going through the expedited pathway instead.
And indeed, the benefits of the new program are clear.
Around 80% of SIMGs who apply to the expedited pathway are assessed for and either granted or denied specialist registration (normally with conditions) within a six-week time frame.
For those who apply to the colleges, just an interim assessment can take up to four months.
SIMGs on the expedited pathway are generally required to complete just six months of supervised practice before they are eligible for unconditional specialist registration.
Those on the college-led pathways could complete anywhere between three and 24 months of supervised practice and could also be required to sit additional exams before even becoming eligible to apply for specialist registration.
Of the 46 SIMGs who completed the expedited specialist program in 2025 (i.e., achieved unconditional specialist registration), 96% did so within a year of first applying.
For the college-led program, that figure was 8%.
“The Board acknowledges that a direct comparison cannot be drawn for total time to unconditional specialist registration between the two pathways due to the additional steps colleges must take to assess an application, and the requirements SIMGs are required to complete on the Specialist pathway,” the Medical Board of Australia’s report comparing the two pathways reads.
“However, the data on the Expedited Specialist pathway confirms that it is a significantly faster pathway to unconditional specialist registration for SIMGs with qualifications that have been assessed as substantially equivalent to an Australian qualification.
“It is important to note that for some colleges, substantially comparable SIMGs who would have previously completed the Specialist pathway in less than a year may now be on the Expedited Specialist pathway.”
The expedited program, which kicked off for GPs in late 2024, allows doctors who fellowed with GP colleges in Ireland, the United Kingdom and New Zealand during certain time periods to apply for specialist registration in Australia directly with the Medical Board of Australia.
Doing so means they can avoid the protracted process whereby the relevant specialist college assesses whether the training each doctor received in their country of origin was partially or substantially similar to that of Australian training.
Related
The colleges have not been pleased, arguing that cutting out the college-led assessments of training comparability translated to a patient safety risk.
Complicating matters is the fact that the colleges have a financial stake in this situation.
Each doctor who goes through an RACGP-led assessment process pays a $605 application fee directly to the college and could go on to pay tens of thousands in program, administration and assessment fees.
In the past, all GPs – regardless of SIMG status – would have to join the RACGP or ACRRM for CPD purposes.
But now, because of the CPD home reforms which came in several years ago, there’s no need for that.
The GPs who qualify via the expedited specialist program could conceivably never join a college.
