News

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Record number of GPs in training to start in 2025

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For the first time in years, the RACGP has filled all its places in the Australian General Practice Training (AGPT) Program for the 2025 intake, marking an almost 20% increase from the previous year.
 
A record-breaking 1504 junior doctors have accepted specialist training for next year through the Federal Government-funded AGPT Program – an increase of 249 doctors embarking on their general practice training journey from 2024, or 19.8%.
 
Of these future GPs, 844 accepted a general training pathway for at least a year outside a major metropolitan area, 583 a rural training pathway, and 77 composite rural placements in specific areas of need that may otherwise have no registrars.
 
RACGP President Dr Nicole Higgins said these figures further demonstrate the success in college-led training since it officially returned to the specialist medical colleges – the RACGP and Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine – in February 2023, and became ‘truly national’ in June this year.
 
‘This is a record to be proud of … and a sign the GP workforce is recovering,’ she said.
 
‘The growth in training numbers reflects not just that the Government has given us the flexibility we need to accommodate prospective trainees and the funding to enable them to take placements, but the great experience junior doctors have had in GP training.’
 
Earlier this year the National Registrar Survey reported more than 92% of AGPT Program participants were satisfied with the delivery of their training, and just this month Federal Government data showed a record increase of new doctors joining the workforce.
 
The RACGP’s 2024 Health of the Nation report also found that more GPs are recommending general practice as a career, up from 38% in 2023 to 44% in 2024.
 
Under its general practice placement incentives and in continued efforts to strengthen the workforce, the RACGP this year placed 177 registrars in priority areas of workforce need that had gone without for years. 
 
Dr Cecilia Xiao, Deputy Chair of the RACGP National Faculty for GPs in Training, welcomes the 2025 intake figures but agrees there is work still to be done to preserve the growth.
 
‘These numbers mean that we’re building the pipeline in training all these new GPs for the future to provide quality healthcare in the primary care sector for Australians,’ she told newsGP.
 
‘We need to be looking at more sustainable strategies, not just two-year grants from individual State Governments, but a collective effort.
 
‘Particularly looking at improving the pay parity, the possible leave entitlement that junior doctors will be losing when they leave the hospital and go into GP training.’
 
While the 2025 placements reflect the Government’s support for general practice training, Dr Higgins also warned it is not time to be complacent in addressing Australia’s GP workforce shortage and is still calling on the Government to commit additional funding.  
 
‘The Government has listened to what GPs need to ensure more Australians can see a GP in the future, and that’s allowed us to deliver a fantastic result … that could have otherwise left a community a GP short,’ she said.
 
‘The story we’ve been told, and that we’ve often told each other as GPs, is one of general practice in decline. These training results show us we can turn that around with the right investments, because funding gets results.
 
‘But it can’t be taken as a sign the job is done. We just need the funding to sustain this growth.’
 
To attract more GPs in training, the RACGP is calling on the Government to:

• fund an additional 500 AGPT Program places for the RACGP over the next five years
• link the allocation of Government-subsidised medical places to a target of 50% of graduates training as GPs
• ensure GPs in training have equal pay and work entitlements to other medical specialists in training.

The RACGP has also long called for a significant boost to patient Medicare rebates, which Dr Higgins says will help to tackle the GP workforce shortage, as junior doctors ‘need to see general practice as a top career pick’ by being able to deliver affordable patient care.
 
Dr Xiao echoes these calls, but said additional measures are also needed to attract doctors into general practice.
 
‘We know that GP visits are supported by Federal funding towards the Medicare system, so looking at the greater perspective, we really need support from the Government itself to continue to support Medicare benefits for patients to make it more affordable for them,’ she said.
 
‘Investment for medical students through to junior doctors is needed via more exposure in general practice work, such as clinical attachments and rotations.
 
‘More importantly we need to improve the public image of GPs to ensure our value is recognised in the community.’
 
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AGPT Program college-led training general practice funding general practice training GP workforce registrars

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