Medical Training Review Panel 19th Report

Postgraduate Year 1

Current Data

In 2015, there were 3,305 trainees commencing PGY1. Of these, over half (51.2%) were females (Table 3.2).

Over four-fifths (2,718 or 82.2%) of all PGY1 trainees commenced training in the state or territory in which they completed their medical degree. A further 254 trainees (7.9%) were trained in Australia, but commenced their PGY1 training in another state or territory.

International students who graduated from an Australian medical school occupied 250 (7.8%) of the PGY1 positions. The number of PGY1 positions in each state and territory approximately matched the distribution of the population as a whole.

The Commonwealth provided funding for additional medical internship positions in 2015 through the Commonwealth Medical Internships (CMI) initiative. This initiative builds new clinical training networks and increases the nation’s capacity to train medical interns in the private hospital sector and rural and regional Australia, where traditionally there are fewer internship opportunities.

As domestic medical students are guaranteed an internship by states and territories under a 2006 Council of Australian Governments agreement, CMI positions are only available to eligible international full-fee paying medical graduates who completed all of their medical degree in Australia (except for university approved rotations offshore).

Table 3.2: Commencing postgraduate year 1 trainees or supervised training positions: Total, females and proportion of females by doctor category and state/territory, 2015