For the first time in eight years, every place on the AGPT is full.
The year ahead will bring a bumper crop of new GP registrars, with all places across both colleges filling up for the first time since 2017.
It will also mark the third year in a row that ACRRM is oversubscribed for places on the Rural Generalist Training Scheme, with recognition for the specialty anticipated to come through in early 2025.
There are 1600 training places in total, with 1500 on the Australian GP Training Program (AGPT) and a further 100 on the Rural Generalist Training Scheme (RGTS).
ACRRM is the only college that administers both and is apportioned about 150 AGPT places along with all 100 RGTS places.
The rural college said it would still be accepting applications until January 2025 even though both its allotted AGPT and RGTS programs were now over-subscribed.
ACRRM told The Medical Republic that it anticipated demand for RGTS places would continue to increase after rural generalism was formally recognised as a specialty and had been lobbying for the government to increase the places on the scheme.
The RACGP handles the remaining 1350 of the AGPT places, a portion of which are dedicated rural places.
In 2025, the royal college will be taking on 1504 junior doctors – about 20% more than its usual intake.
More than half of these are on the general training pathway, while 583 are on a rural pathway within the AGPT and 77 are on composite rural placements.
It’s a remarkable turnaround considering that the number of AGPT places filled hit a nine-year low of 1248 just two years ago.
“The story we’ve been told, and that we’ve often told each other as GPs, is one of general practice in decline,” RACGP president Dr Nicole Higgins said.
“These training results show us we can turn that around with the right investments, because funding general practice gets results.
“We’ve shown we can train more GPs, and we’ve shown we can get GPs to the communities which need them most, including rural and regional communities.
“We just need the funding to sustain this growth.”
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The RACGP called on the government to fund 500 additional AGPT places over the next five years, ensure GPs in training have the same pay and work entitlements as hospital-trained doctors and to link the allocation of government-subsidised medical school places to a target of 50% of graduates training as GPs.
While the college and multiple other GP peaks have been calling for the first two items for some time now, the idea of linking Commonwealth-supported university places to graduate outcome is relatively novel.
It’s unclear how this would be achieved, but it’s not entirely out of the question – some medical school places are already supported under the bonded return of service scheme, which require students to commit to working in an eligible regional, rural or remote area for at least three years post-graduation.
There have been multiple iterations of the bonded places scheme, and historically many have chosen to buy their way out rather than complete their return of service.
