The total number of advanced training positions/trainees increased by just over 40% between 2009 and 2013 (Table 4.28). The proportion of female advanced trainees increased very slightly across the five years to its highest level of 52.1% in 2013. The number and proportion of part-time advanced trainees, however, fluctuated from year to year, decreasing after the highest level in 2011 (15.4%) to 12.5% in 2012 and then increasing to 13.3% in 2013.
Total college trainees | Advanced training positions/ trainees | Female advanced trainees | Proportion female (%) | Part-time advanced trainees | Proportion part-time (%) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
(a) Female advanced trainees for RANZCO include 5th year trainees. Source: Medical colleges and GPET | ||||||
2009 | 12,958 | 8,249 | 3,967 | 48.1 | 1,052 | 12.8 |
2010 | 14,679 | 9,432 | 4,494 | 47.6 | 971 | 10.3 |
2011 | 15,478 | 10,214 | 5,116 | 50.1 | 1,577 | 15.4 |
2012 | 16,740 | 10,996 | 5,536 | 50.3 | 1,379 | 12.5 |
2013 | 17,888 | 11,832 | (a)6,160 | 52.1 | 1,576 | 13.3 |
Increase 2009-2013 (%) | 38.0 | 43.4 | 55.3 | 8.3 | 49.8 | 4.1 |
Over the five years from 2009 to 2013, a number of medical colleges increased training numbers (Table 4.29). It is important to note that the total figures in Table 4.29 differ from the sum of state/territory totals in some years because it includes trainees in overseas placements (Table 4.30).
Occupational and environmental medicine showed the largest increase between 2009 and 2013, with growth of 85.5%. This was followed by general practice and emergency medicine, showing increases of 70.3% and 65.1% respectively. Surgery showed the smallest increase at 9.1%, while intensive care decreased by about one-quarter over the five-year period.
Medical specialty | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | Change 2009-2013 (%) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
(a) Emergency medicine and paediatrics data account for trainees undertaking paediatric emergency medicine. Source: Medical colleges and GPET | ||||||
Addiction medicine | .. | 11 | 13 | 18 | 24 | .. |
Adult medicine | (e)1,157 | (e)1,406 | 1,469 | 1,468 | 1,513 | 30.8 |
Anaesthesia | 485 | 612 | 566 | 609 | 657 | 35.5 |
Anaesthesia - pain medicine | 53 | 51 | 58 | 59 | 65 | 22.6 |
Dermatology | 39 | 45 | 54 | 57 | 49 | 25.6 |
Emergency medicine(a)(b) | 811 | 881 | 1,057 | 1,204 | 1,339 | 65.1 |
General practice - GPET | 2,309 | 2,572 | 2,948 | (j)3,289 | (o)3,932 | 70.3 |
General practice - ACRRM(c) | .. | 70 | 6 | (k)156 | 155 | .. |
Intensive care | 375 | 332 | 312 | 302 | 281 | -25.1 |
Medical administration | 92 | 105 | 86 | 98 | (p)107 | 16.3 |
Obstetrics and gynaecology | (f)131 | (f)123 | 143 | (f)133 | (f)159 | 21.4 |
Occupational and environmental medicine | 55 | 87 | 80 | 84 | 102 | 85.5 |
Ophthalmology | 77 | (g)49 | (h)86 | (l)80 | (q)90 | 16.9 |
Paediatrics(a) | 453 | 583 | 640 | 593 | 556 | 22.7 |
Palliative medicine | .. | 58 | 71 | 24 | 80 | .. |
Pathology | 224 | 301 | 314 | 314 | 301 | 34.4 |
Pathology and RACP (jointly) | 137 | 131 | 173 | 208 | 213 | 55.5 |
Psychiatry | 322 | 350 | 368 | (m)417 | (r)418 | 29.8 |
Public health medicine | 61 | 60 | 72 | 61 | 81 | 32.8 |
Radiation oncology | 101 | 110 | 137 | 141 | 122 | 20.8 |
Radiodiagnosis | 328 | 333 | 366 | 372 | 364 | 11.0 |
Rehabilitation medicine | 138 | 143 | 162 | 177 | 191 | 38.4 |
Sexual health medicine | .. | 19 | 7 | 10 | 20 | .. |
Sport and exercise medicine | .. | .. | 27 | 28 | (s)30 | .. |
Surgery(d) | 901 | 1,000 | (i)966 | (n)1,094 | 983 | 9.1 |
Total | 9,150 | 9,432 | 10,214 | 10,996 | 11,832 | 29.3 |
Advanced vocational training activity increased markedly in all states from 2009 to 2013 (Table 4.30).
However, the Australian Capital Territory had the smallest increases and showed considerable fluctuations across the five years. It should be noted that the true picture of increases in training in the Australian Capital Territory provided by this data is distorted by the fact data for some specialties were previously reported with New South Wales data and general practice numbers continue to be reported together.
NSW | Vic | Qld | SA | WA | Tas | NT | ACT | Aust(a) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
(a) Australian total differs from the sum of state/territory totals in some years because it includes trainees in overseas placements. Source: Medical colleges and GPET | |||||||||
2009 | 2,727 | 2,190 | 1,486 | 623 | 722 | 156 | 130 | 122 | 8,249 |
2010 | 3,033 | 2,448 | 1,780 | 740 | 700 | 170 | 176 | 252 | 9,277 |
2011 | 3,314 | 2,596 | 2,042 | 852 | 912 | 207 | 151 | 139 | 10,194 |
2012 | 3,580 | 2,769 | 2,244 | 888 | 983 | 239 | 178 | 151 | 10,996 |
2013 | 3,859 | 2,916 | 2,476 | 914 | 1,052 | 250 | 208 | 143 | 11,832 |
Increase 2009–2013 (%) | 41.5 | 33.2 | 66.6 | 46.7 | 45.7 | 60.3 | 60.0 | 17.2 | 43.4 |
Overall, the proportion of advanced vocational trainees who are female has shown small increases over the five years from 2009 to 2013, reaching just over half of all advanced vocational trainees (Table 4.31).
The proportion of female advanced trainees has fluctuated over the years in most specialties, particularly those with smaller numbers of trainees. In spite of this variation, there are a number of specialties that have had consistently lower proportions of female trainees, such as surgery, sport and exercise medicine, intensive care medicine and occupational and environmental medicine. In contrast, sexual health medicine, dermatology, rehabilitation medicine, public health medicine, paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology, general practice and palliative medicine have maintained higher proportions (around three-fifths each year) of female advanced trainees.
Medical specialty | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | Change 2009-2013 (%) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Proportion female (%) | ||||||
(a) In 2010 the proportion was calculated for pathology medical specialty only. The percentage for both pathology and pathology and RACP (jointly) was 53.4. Source: Medical colleges and GPET | ||||||
Addiction medicine | .. | 36.4 | 30.8 | 44.4 | 46.0 | .. |
Adult medicine | 40.2 | 42.3 | 43.0 | 45.6 | 48.0 | 19.4 |
Anaesthesia | 50.7 | 39.9 | 43.1 | 44.0 | 44.9 | -11.5 |
Anaesthesia - pain medicine | 35.8 | 29.4 | 27.6 | 38.9 | 52.3 | 46.1 |
Dermatology | 59.0 | 55.6 | 61.1 | 73.7 | 63.3 | 7.3 |
Emergency medicine | 41.9 | 38.6 | 41.1 | 40.9 | 41.4 | -1.2 |
General practice | 63.8 | 64.9 | .. | .. | .. | .. |
- GPET | .. | .. | 65.8 | 64.9 | 64.9 | .. |
- ACRRM | .. | .. | 33.3 | 27.5 | 25.0 | .. |
Intensive care | 24.3 | 27.1 | 26.9 | 30.5 | 32.7 | 34.8 |
Medical administration | 14.1 | 27.6 | 41.9 | 39.8 | 40.2 | 184.4 |
Obstetrics and gynaecology | 67.9 | 65.0 | 60.1 | 65.4 | 69.2 | 1.9 |
Occupational and environmental medicine | 25.5 | 14.9 | 21.3 | 20.2 | 24.5 | -3.7 |
Ophthalmology | 31.2 | 38.8 | 38.4 | 23.8 | 40.0 | 28.3 |
Paediatrics | 58.7 | 61.4 | 65.9 | 65.3 | 67.0 | 14.1 |
Palliative medicine | .. | 53.4 | 63.8 | 60.0 | 67.5 | .. |
Pathology | 64.5 | (a)80.1 | 59.2 | 64.3 | 58.8 | (c)-8.9 |
Pathology and RACP (jointly) | .. | .. | 47.4 | 35.7 | 56.3 | .. |
Psychiatry | 53.1 | 55.1 | 63.0 | 55.6 | 55.0 | 3.6 |
Public health medicine | 59.0 | 61.7 | 52.8 | 67.0 | 65.0 | 10.1 |
Radiation oncology | 57.4 | 58.2 | 51.8 | 56.7 | 53.2 | -7.4 |
Radiodiagnosis | 34.8 | 31.8 | 31.4 | 46.5 | 34.0 | -2.2 |
Rehabilitation medicine | 61.6 | 61.5 | 64.8 | 68.9 | 69.0 | 12.0 |
Sexual health medicine | .. | 52.6 | 28.6 | 80.0 | 70.0 | .. |
Sport and exercise medicine | .. | .. | 22.2 | 25.0 | 20.5 | .. |
Surgery | 23.1 | 22.8 | (b)23.8 | 25.5 | 28.1 | 21.7 |
Total (%) | 48.1 | 47.6 | 49.9 | 50.4 | 52.0 | 8.3 |
Total female trainees | 3,967 | 4,494 | 5,116 | 5,536 | 6,160 | 55.3 |
Overall the proportion of female advanced trainees remains fairly constant across states, approximately in the range of 40% to 60% each year. However, the Northern Territory has consistently had the highest proportion of female trainees each year (fluctuating between a low of 52.3% in 2010 and peaking at 61.6% in 2011). In most cases, the proportion of female trainees was considerably lower in the Australian Capital Territory (Table 4.32).
![]() | NSW | Vic | Qld | SA | WA | Tas | NT | ACT | Aust |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Proportion female (%) | |||||||||
Source: Medical colleges and GPET | |||||||||
2009 | 39.2 | 49.4 | 46.2 | 47.2 | 45.2 | 48.7 | 60.0 | 42.6 | 48.1 |
2010 | 50.0 | 48.8 | 46.1 | 46.4 | 48.9 | 57.6 | 52.3 | 40.1 | 47.6 |
2011 | 53.8 | 49.9 | 47.3 | 48.2 | 47.3 | 51.2 | 61.6 | 34.5 | 50.2 |
2012 | 52.7 | 50.8 | 46.8 | 50.2 | 50.9 | 52.7 | 60.1 | 35.8 | 50.3 |
2013 | 53.4 | 52.5 | 48.8 | 52.2 | 54.2 | 53.6 | 57.7 | 39.9 | 52.1 |
The number of part-time advanced trainees increased by 14.3% between 2012 and 2013. (Table 4.33). Considerable variability in reported numbers of part-time advanced trainees from year to year makes it difficult to distinguish any discernible trends in part-time training. Considerable fluctuations are also seen within specialties between 2009 and 2013.
Medical specialty | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
(a) Includes trainees within the joint RACP and RCPA program and trainees based overseas. | |||||
Addiction medicine | 6 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Adult medicine(a) | 51 | 59 | 63 | 55 | 48 |
Anaesthesia | 21 | 24 | 25 | 45 | 24 |
Anaesthesia - pain medicine | 7 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
Dermatology | 1 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 6 |
Emergency medicine(b)(c) | na | (g)23 | 36 | 105 | 193 |
General practice | 743 | 631 | .. | .. | .. |
- GPET | .. | .. | 991 | (h)715 | 1,020 |
- ACRRM(d) | .. | .. | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Intensive care | 2 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 4 |
Medical administration | 1 | 1 | 5 | 4 | (i)9 |
Obstetrics and gynaecology | 25 | 3 | 7 | 6 | 8 |
Occupational and environmental medicine | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Ophthalmology | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 |
Paediatrics(a)(b) | 70 | 76 | 154 | 74 | 75 |
Palliative medicine | 16 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 11 |
Pathology | 1 | 11 | 18 | 28 | 15 |
Pathology and RACP (jointly) | 1 | 5 | 9 | ||
Psychiatry | 60 | 64 | 29 | 82 | 78 |
Public health medicine | 17 | 11 | 17 | 16 | 7 |
Radiation oncology | 1 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 5 |
Radiodiagnosis | 5 | 7 | 13 | 8 | 11 |
Rehabilitation medicine | 17 | 26 | 24 | 31 | 25 |
Sexual health medicine | 7 | 11 | 4 | 5 | 7 |
Sport and exercise medicine | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
Surgery(e) | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
Total(f) | 1,054 | 977 | 1,416 | 1,379 | 1,576 |