More GPs are recommending general practice as a career

There has been an increase in the proportion of GPs recommending general practice as a career to future doctors. This has increased from 38% in 2023, to 44% in 2024 (Figure 39). This increase is encouraging, although still not at 2021 levels, whereby 58% of GPs were prepared to recommend the profession to future doctors.

GPs in training

We continue to see a repeated decline in medical students’ preference to specialise in general practice. In 2023, only 10.5% of medical students reported general practice as their preferred specialty of future practice, contrasting with 13% in 2022, and 13.6% in 2021.¹³ Interest in specialising as a rural generalist continues to increase, with 7% of medical students identifying this as their preferred specialty in 2023, compared to 5.8% in 2022.¹³

General practice as a preferred specialty has slipped to fourth place overall, down from second place last year (Figure 40). However, when combined with rural generalism, it is ranked as the most preferred specialty overall, at 17.5%.¹³

The number of doctors entering the Australian General Practice Training (AGPT) Program has slightly increased from 1130 doctors in 2023, to 1204 doctors in 2024 (Figure 41). The Fellowship Support Program (FSP) is a new general practice training program, replacing the Practice Experience Program (PEP) – Standard, with 409 GPs in training participants starting this program in 2024.

The PEP – Specialist is a program for overseas GP specialists wishing to qualify for RACGP Fellowship, with 81 GP participants starting this program in 2024.
 

Females continue to represent a larger proportion of the GP in training cohort across all RACGP training programs, although overall female FTE is smaller compared to overall female GP headcount (Figure 42).

The majority of GPs in training are practising in metropolitan areas, with 55% of AGPT and 64% of PEP – Specialist training participants practising in an MM1 region. FSP training participants are most predominant in MM2 regions (32%) due to requirements for registrars to work in MM2–7 regions (Figure 43).