It may not be under threat, but the delay is causing problems.
Nobody knows if the Specialist Training Program, funded by the federal government, is set to continue next year. While a delay is not unexpected, given the election, it’s still causing headaches.
The medical colleges that our sister publication, Health Services Daily, spoke with said the caretaker period caused understandable delay, but it was making it difficult for everyone involved to plan around regional and rural posts meant to start in a matter of months.
The STP is also “undergoing a period of reform and review, informed by an independent evaluation of the program undertaken in 2024/2025”, a Department of Health, Disability and Ageing spokesperson told HSD.
Administered via 13 specialist medical colleges, the STP contributes to the salaries of 920 trainee positions outside metropolitan teaching hospitals, as well as 100 training posts through the integrated Rural Training Pipeline, and trainee and supervisor positions, education and infrastructure through Tasmanian Project.
It’s already June, and the agreements for the current funding cycle (2022-2025) are set to expire at the end of this year. But, as reported last week in newspapers published by ACM Media, the medical colleges all received letters in April saying their funding could not be guaranteed beyond this year.
Dr Corey Cunningham, president of the Australasian College of Sport and Exercise Physicians, told HSD that he was at the Council of Presidents of Medical Colleges last month and the colleges are worried.
“From the college point of view, yes, it’s a big issue. Certainly for sport and exercise medicine, all our doctors train in the community,” said Dr Cunningham.
“Everyone sees it as valuable, for sure. Everyone thinks it would be better if there were more places available, and maybe that’s why they’re holding back, and there will be more places available, but we just don’t know.”
He said the expectation was that the program would continue, or possibly that one year of funding would be allocated while changes were being considered as a result of the review process, or that the changes could be made from 2026.
“It’ll probably be focused to more rural and remote settings, and that might compromise perhaps towns like Cairns or Hobart or Orange, which are a reasonable size.
“But they’re also important for training, because you need your population base to see enough patients to train in your specialty properly.”
The college currently has four STP and three IRTP positions, across Hobart, Orange, Ballarat, Cairns, Gippsland and Broome.
“The difficulty with uncertainty is both that the training program doesn’t know about allocation of registrars for next year, and the sites themselves don’t know if they’ll be funded to have a registrar to train there, which then creates some workforce needs, issues or considerations and all the stuff that goes around having an extra doctor in a town or a clinic or a regional centre,” said Dr Cunningham.
“In Cairns hospital there’s an outpatient clinic that has STP funding for a part-time sports physician. And hospitals want to know, can we allocate resources to run that clinic or not, or do we close the clinic down?
“Most people are planning the year before or six months before; so – now. The training year usually commences in February.
“It’s getting towards that six months prior where people make decisions about whether we allocate there or the pool of registrars available need to be trained in other locations, because we have no guarantee that there’ll be a spot there for them for them.”
According to ACM Media, the department’s April letter to the colleges said:
“We acknowledge the timing of the decision may put pressure on colleges to be able to recruit and fill future posts, pending confirmation of future funding arrangements.”
The Department has reassured colleges expressing concern in response to the letter.
The Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists wrote to the Department expressing its concerns about how the delay would affect operational sites and trainee numbers for 2026.
“ANZCA received a response from the Department acknowledging that the uncertainty regarding the STP ‘is challenging and that non-GP specialist colleges such as the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists are facing pressure regarding recruitment for 2026 training posts. I understand this limits what you can communicate with health settings, and there may be implications for uptake of posts’,” a spokesperson for ANZCA told HSD.
“The Department confirmed that ‘once a new government has been formed the Department will endeavour to expedite a government decision in respect of the STP and this decision will be communicated to colleges as soon as possible to avoid any further uncertainty’.”
The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons told ACM Media it had met with the Department and “was assured the program’s future ‘is not uncertain’.”
“To avoid disrupting services in 2026, if there is a change in funding, we have requested that transitional arrangements be factored in,” college CEO Ms Stephanie Clota told ACM.
When HSD contacted the DoHDA last week it still had not made a decision.
“The STP is undergoing a period of reform and review, informed by an independent evaluation of the program undertaken in 2024/2025. Any decision on future arrangements for the STP, and whether the final evaluation report will be published, are subject to a decision of the government. Non-GP specialist colleges will be advised once a determination on the future of the program has been made by government,” a spokesperson said.
