Private Hospital Stream

The Private Hospital Stream is part of the Junior Doctor Training Program, under our Stronger Rural Health Strategy. It supports education, training and supervision for junior doctors in private hospitals to help provide a continued supply of doctors to deliver health services across Australia.

The EOI internships process for 2023 closed at 5pm AEDT, Monday 10 October, 2022.

About the PHS

The Private Hospital Stream (PHS) funds private hospitals to deliver medical internships and support junior doctors to work in expanded settings. It has a strong focus on supporting training for junior doctors in rural, regional and remote areas in Modified Monash (MM) 2 to 7 locations.

This includes fostering partnerships between private hospital providers, rural public hospitals and other training settings (such as Aboriginal Medical Services) working as part of expanded training networks.

The PHS:

  • supports private hospitals to employ junior doctors in Postgraduate Years (PGY) 1, 2 and 3
  • increases the national capacity to deliver medical internships
  • supports junior doctors to work in expanded settings, including working in rural communities.

Internships and places

The PHS supports up to 115 internships and up to 80 PGY 2 and 3 eligible junior doctor places in the 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 training years.

Expression of Interest (EOI) internships

We run an annual EOI internship process for junior doctors to express interest in a PHS-funded medical internship place.

This process is only for PGY 1 funded places. It opens each year after state and territory governments have offered and filled their internship positions.

The EOI internships process for 2023 closed at 5pm AEDT, Monday 10 October, 2022.

See the PHS 2023 application formFrequently Asked Questions and key dates.

Eligibility

The program divides applicants into 2 categories – Priority One and Priority Two.

Priority One eligibility criteria

The Priority One category is for final year medical students who meet all eligibility criteria for an internship under the PHS.

You are Priority One if you:

  • are a full-fee-paying international student completing your medical degree during the current calendar year from a medical school in Australia, having completed all of your medical degree in Australia (university-approved, short-term elective rotations completed overseas are allowed)
  • have met the Medical Board of Australia (MBA) English language proficiency requirements for registration purposes
  • are not an Australian Citizen
  • commit to getting a visa to work in Australia during your internship year (see the Department of Home Affairs for visa details).

Priority Two eligibility criteria

You are Priority Two if you:

  • have MBA provisional registration as a medical practitioner
  • have met the MBA English language proficiency requirements for registration purposes
  • commit to getting a visa to work in Australia during your internship year (see the Department of Home Affairs for visa details).

The Priority Two candidate list will be given to the private hospitals to consider eligible candidates if vacancies remain after the Priority One candidate list has been utilised.

Who is not eligible

You are not eligible to apply for the PHS if you:

  • do not meet the Priority One or Priority Two eligibility criteria
  • have accepted an internship position from a state or territory government.

Recruitment process

We set both a recruitment and offer period. This provides enough time for funded private hospitals to contact eligible people and offer them employment.

This process aligns with the state and territory government recruitment processes and the national audit process, which we take part in.

We forward applications to the PHS participating private hospitals by the due dates each year.

The PHS participating private hospitals do eligibility checks. They will contact eligible applicants they want to interview.

You should not make direct contact with the hospitals.

Category prioritisation

PHS participating private hospitals must fill PGY 1 places with Priority One applicants first.

If there are still places available after the Priority One list is finished, the hospitals can then recruit Priority Two applicants.

PGY 2 and 3 funded places

PHS participating private hospitals make their own recruitment and employment arrangements for PGY 2 and 3 junior doctors. This allows them to meet their own service needs.

We have no role in the PGY 2 and 3 recruitment, so we do not set eligibility criteria for PGY 2 and 3 funded places.

If you are a PGY 2 or 3 doctor funded under the PHS, you must complete at least one rural rotation each year.

PHS 2023 internship key dates

Activity Date
PHS 2023 EOI internship applications open for eligible applicants 9 am (AEST) Monday 26 September 2022
PHS 2023 EOI internship applications close 5 pm (AEDT) on Monday 10 October 2022

Hospital recruitment period (offer period) – Priority One candidates

PHS participating private hospitals will provide applicants no longer than 48 hours to accept the offer being made.

Monday 31 October 2022 to Friday 25 November 2022

PHS-funded hospitals

We fund the following private hospitals to deliver the PHS from 2020 to 2023:

  • Mater Misericordiae Limited Queensland through
    • Mater Health Services North Queensland (delivering PGY 1 places)
    • Mercy Health and Aged Care Central Queensland through Mater Private Hospital Bundaberg, Friendly Society Private Hospital Bundaberg, Bundaberg Base Hospital Bundaberg, Mackay Base Hospital Mackay and Mater Misericordiae Hospital Mackay (delivering PGY 1, 2 and 3 places)
  • Greenslopes Private Hospital, Queensland (delivering PGY 1, 2 and 3 places)
  • Calvary Health Care Riverina, New South Wales (delivering PGY 2 places)
  • Mater Hospital Sydney (delivering PGY 1 places)
  • St Vincent’s Private Hospital Sydney (delivering PGY 1 places)
  • MQ Health, New South Wales (Macquarie University Hospital) (deliver PGY 1 places)
  • St John of God Ballarat Hospital, Victoria – Grampians Intern Training Program (delivering PGY 1 places)
  • Ramsay Health Care, Western Australia (Joondalup) (delivering PGY 1, 2 and 3 places).

Contact

Junior Doctor Training Program – Private Hospital Stream contact

Contact us with questions about the Private Hospital Stream of the Junior Doctor Training Program.
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