The cost of expanding training settings has been calculated using many variables. Salaries were estimated for first year specialist trainees at $90,000, increasing by $10,000 for each subsequent year of training. Additional on-costs were estimated at approximately 60% of specialist trainees’ salaries and include supervision, infrastructure costs, insurance (including medical indemnity) and administration. The quantum of these costs varies between specialty and settings.
The total cost for expanding training in each specialty was estimated by multiplying the estimated additional numbers of specialist trainees by the estimated individual trainee cost (Table 2).
Table 2: Projected increase in annual training costs required to expand training settings
 | Increase in estimated total training cost ($000s) | ||
| Reviewed speciality | Scenario 1 | Scenario 2 | |
| Gastroenterology | 2,438 | 2,438 | |
| General paediatrics | 23,958 | 23,958 | |
| General surgery | 10,909 | 10,909 | |
| Orthapaedic surgery | 6,189 | 6,189 | |
| Obstetrics and gynaecology | 12,644 | 16,851 | |
| Pathology | 13,797 | 13,797 | |
| Anaesthetics | 30,014 | 32,446 | |
| Psychiatry | 18,617 | 19,121 | |
| Dermatology | 1,452 | 2,282 | |
| Rehabilitation medicine | 3,809 | 3,809 | |
| Total selected specialties | 123,829 | 131,802 | |
Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers 2006
Additional training costs may be incurred to support additional trainees in the basic paediatric, adult medicine and surgical training programs to support the advanced program increases shown in Table 1.
To implement the full educational imperative for the ten sample specialties, the cost would range between $124 and $132 million per annum.