When medical practitioners finish their vocational training and have met all other requirements of the relevant specialist medical college, they are eligible to apply for fellowship of that college.
There were 2,993 new college fellows in 2014 (Figure 9). This is a significant increase since 2000, when the data were first collected, with the number of new fellows increasing by 165.8% from 1,126. The numbers of new fellows reported in 2013 and 2014 slightly decreased from 2012, as new fellows who live overseas have been excluded from the total. In 2014, over two-fifths (1,399 or 46.7%) of all new fellows were females.
Approximately one-fifth (557 or 18.6%) of new fellows were overseas trained specialists who had completed the requirements of the specialist medical colleges and were deemed substantially comparable with specialists trained by the medical college in Australia.
Figure 9: New fellows by gender, 2000-2014
Source: Medical colleges
The proportion of new fellows in each medical specialty is shown in Figure 10. Overall, new fellows represented 5.6% of all college fellows in 2014. The proportion of each college’s fellows who were new fellows varied greatly across specialties, with the largest proportion of new fellows in general practice (45.3%), adult medicine (10.3%) and anaesthesia (7.9%).
The proportionate split has remained approximately the same across the specialties over recent years, with two-fifths of all new fellows in general practice. General practice had the largest increase over the last five years in terms of absolute numbers, with 494 more new fellows in 2014 than in 2010. In terms of proportional increases, the number of new fellows in palliative medicine increased by five and a half times (550%) during the same period.
The significance of the increased training activity and consequently the number of new fellows can be put into perspective by looking at it in relation to the total number of college fellows. In 2014, there were 53,098 fellows of medical colleges reported as actively practising in their specialty.
Figure 10: Proportion of new fellows by medical specialty, 2014
Source: Medical colleges
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