Policy update notice: General Practice Experience Pathway Requirements for Fellowship, and PEP Specialist Stream Requirements for Fellowship and Exam Eligibility – 26 May 2021

The RACGP has reviewed the General Practice Experience Pathway – Requirements for Fellowship Policy, Practice Experience Pathway – Specialist Stream Partially Comparable Requirements for Fellowship Policy, and Practice Experience Pathway – Specialist Stream Substantially Comparable Requirements for Fellowship, to clarify that the RACGP may deem a participant unsuitable for Fellowship of the RACGP (FRACGP) if they have conditions or restrictions on their medical registration that prevent them from undertaking unsupervised general practice.

The Fellowship of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (FRACGP) is a specialist general practice qualification accredited by the Australian Medical Council. At the point of applying for Fellowship an applicant needs to demonstrate readiness to practice unsupervised as a specialist in accordance with the Standards of General Practice (5th Edition). There are some instances where conditions and or/undertakings on medical registration are not compatible with unsupervised practice.

Therefore, the RACGP reserves the right to withhold awarding an applicant FRACGP if the RACGP reasonably considers the applicant has restrictions, conditions and/or undertakings on their current medical registration that prevent them from undertaking unsupervised general practice.

The RACGP has made its stance on conditions on medical registrations and their implications on attaining Fellowship clear for all future applications.

The RACGP has developed the Practice Experience Pathway – Specialist Stream Satisfactory Completion Framework Guidance Document and referenced the requirements of the document in the Practice Experience Pathway – Specialist Stream Partially Comparable Requirements for Fellowship Policy, Practice Experience Pathway – Specialist Stream Substantially Comparable Requirements for Fellowship, and Policy Practice Experience Pathway – Specialist Stream Partially Comparable Exam Eligibility Policy

Previously, the RACGP had not published what satisfactory completion of the PEP Specialist Stream was. This meant PEP Specialist Participants had no easily accessible guidance on what they needed to do to complete their program.

PEP Specialist Participants are now clear on what they need to complete to finish the PEP Specialist Stream and move on to either sit Fellowship exams (partially comparable) or apply for FRACGP (substantially comparable.