Medical Training Review Panel 19th Report

Basic Training

Periods of defined basic training prior to an individual commencing the advanced training program are required by nine specialties. Table 4.4 and Table 4.5 provide data on trainees for these specialties.

Some colleges have programs that do not distinguish between basic and advanced trainees. For example, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) has an integrated program, the Surgical Education and Training (SET) program, which does not distinguish between basic and advanced trainees. Data on these programs are reported in the sections related to advanced training.

Further information on the training requirements for each specialty is provided in
Appendix B.

There were 6,259 basic trainees (Table 4.3), representing 31.2% of all vocational trainees in 2015. This represents a 1.7% decrease on the 6,367 basic vocational trainees in 2014, as all trainees from the College of Intensive Care Medicine of Australia and New Zealand (CICM) are now reported in the sections relating to advanced trainees.

Growth of over 123% from the 2,803 trainees undertaking basic vocational training in 2006 was mainly related to the introduction by many colleges of additional basic training as a pre-requisite of entry to advanced training as well as the requirement for RACP trainees in their first year of training to register with the college.

In 2015, adult medicine had the largest number (2,732) of basic trainees (Table 4.4).

Of the total number of basic trainees, 1,955 were in their first year. Over two-fifths (825 or 42.2%) of these basic trainees were in their first year of adult medicine. Nearly one-sixth (311 or 15.9%) were commencing their first year of basic training in emergency medicine and 14.6% (285) were commencing in psychiatry.

Table 4.4 Basic trainees and first-year basic trainees by medical specialty and state/territory, 2015