A doctor enters and completes general practice training

The Commonwealth is adding 200 places in 2026, 300 in 2027 and 400 from 2028. Places are not the constraint. The constraint is one step: leaving hospital employment, where a doctor's pay, leave and entitlements are set by an award, for a training program where they are set by an agreement between two membership organisations.

workforceAn Australian medical graduate moving from hospital training into the Australian General Practice Training program draft compare across jurisdictions

3747 days elapsed
longest dependent chain

9 discrete steps
across 3 bodies

4% waiting on availability
scheduling or queue, not assessment

0 days saved by concurrency
vs. 3747 if run end-to-end

Where the time goes

Critical-path days only. Steps that run alongside others are real work but do not lengthen the process, so counting them here would overstate the prize.

assessment	1915d	Someone is genuinely evaluating the merits.
applicant	1670d	Waiting on the applicant to supply or fix something.
scheduling	120d	Waiting for a person or committee to become available.
queue	42d	Waiting behind unrelated work in a backlog.

162 of 3747 elapsed days are spent waiting for a person or a meeting rather than for a judgement to be formed. Removing that time changes no assessment standard and lowers no bar -- it is the cost of scheduling alone.

The process, step by step

Applies when: A doctor seeks to train as a general practitioner or rural generalist.

#	Step	Who	Why it waits	Clock	Typical	Basis
1	Medical degree application	—	applicant	—	1460 estimate	—
2	Internship and prevocational years assessment Employed by a hospital, under a state award, accruing leave and entitlements. after Medical degree 1557d slack	—	assessment	—	730 estimate	—
3	Choose general practice over a hospital specialty decision The decision the entire policy problem turns on. after Internship and prevocational years 1377d slack	—	applicant	—	180 estimate	—
4	Apply for an AGPT place application after Choose general practice over a hospital specialty 1257d slack	GP training college (AGPT administrator)	scheduling	—	120 published	—
5	Employment terms set under the NTCER registration Pay and conditions set by an agreement between General Practice Registrars Australia and GP Supervision Australia. after Apply for an AGPT place 1227d slack	—	applicant	—	30 published	—
6	Single Employer Model, where a trial operates registration only if triggered One employer across all training rotations, preserving entitlements and providing a fixed salary. Triggered when: The registrar is in a jurisdiction and location where a Single Employer Model trial operates. after Apply for an AGPT place 1227d slack	—	applicant	—	30 published	—
7	Complete the training program assessment after Employment terms set under the NTCER 132d slack	GP training college (AGPT administrator)	assessment	—	1095 estimate	—
8	Fellowship and specialist registration registration after Complete the training program 42d slack	Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency	assessment	—	90 estimate	—
9	Medicare provider number and location restrictions registration Where the new fellow may practise with Medicare access. after Fellowship and specialist registration	Department of Health, Disability and Ageing	queue	—	42 estimate	—

on the critical path scheduling/queue = delay not caused by the assessment itself

Proposed changes

Adding 900 training places while the known fix runs as a $6.4 million trial to 2028 threshold
The Commonwealth is adding 200 GP training places in 2026, 300 in 2027 and 400 from 2028. The Single Employer Model — which addresses the reason doctors do not take them — operates in seven jurisdictions, is funded at $6.4 million to 2027-28, and is time-limited to 31 December 2028.
Employment terms for a Commonwealth-funded training program, set by two membership organisations merge
GP registrar pay and conditions are set by the NTCER — an agreement negotiated between the registrars' association and the supervisors' association. It is not an award, not an enterprise agreement, and not made by government. The hospital job the same doctor is choosing between is governed by a state award.

Sources

Department of Health, Disability and Ageing: up to 1,500 fully-funded GP and rural generalist AGPT places per annum, increasing by 200 commencing places in 2026, 300 in 2027 and 400 from 2028; 100 rural generalist places moving into AGPT from 2026
National Terms and Conditions for the Employment of Registrars (NTCER), version 2026.1, negotiated between General Practice Registrars Australia and GP Supervision Australia
NTCER 2026 changes: base rate increase in line with MBS indexation, flexible administration time for GPT3 and GPT4, unpaid cultural leave; up to 5 days or 38 hours pro-rata paid study leave from Semester 1 2026 through the Services Australia National Consistent Payment framework
Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, Single Employer Model trials: operating in NSW, Tasmania, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria, with WA and NT from July 2026; time-limited to 31 December 2028; $6.4 million to 2027-28

Something wrong here?

This page is wrong in some way -- every page like it is. If you have run this process, the most useful thing you can do is tell us which step took longer than we say and why. Edit data/processes/au-gp-training-pathway.toml and open a pull request, or send us the correction.