Rural health workforce initiatives and programs

The Approved Medical Deputising Services (AMDS) program enables non-vocationally recognised doctors to access Medicare benefits for providing after-hours services on behalf of other doctors. This helps them get general practice experience, while ensuring people can access health care after hours.

Through the APED Program, advanced specialist trainees doing their emergency medicine training can work under supervision in a private hospital for 12 months and access relevant Medicare items. This helps increase the number of emergency medicine specialists in Australia.

We contribute funding to these scholarships, which support medical students to complete a year at a Rural Clinical School. The aim is to encourage students to practice medicine in rural Australia.

We contribute funding for these scholarships, which support nursing students to complete their major clinical placement and graduating year in a rural or remote area. The aim is to encourage students to pursue a nursing career in rural Australia.

The Bonded Medical Places Scheme has closed to new applicants. Existing participants can either continue with this scheme or opt in to the more flexible Bonded Medical Program.

The Bonded Medical Program helps address the shortage of medical professionals in regional, rural and remote areas of Australia. It provides a Commonwealth Supported Place in a medical course in exchange for participants working in those areas after they graduate.

DoctorConnect provides information to international medical graduates and their employers. It aims to help international medical graduates understand the steps required to work as a doctor in Australia, where they can work and restrictions on billing patients under Medicare.

The Five Year Overseas Trained Doctors Scheme improves access to doctors in rural and remote areas. It increases the supply of doctors to work in these areas where their services are needed the most.

The Flexible Approach to Training in Expanded Settings (FATES) funds new non-general practitioner specialist medical training approaches. FATES aims to broaden the skills of the specialist workforce, bring more specialists to regional areas, and ensure all Australians can access high-quality care.

The General Practitioner Procedural Training Support Program (GPPTSP) aims to improve maternity services for women living in rural and remote areas. It supports general practitioners (GPs) in those areas to gain procedural skills in anaesthetics and obstetrics.