No BPT, no divisional exam. Stage A entry needs general registration, at least 2 years of postgraduate general clinical experience, enrolment in (or completion of) a postgraduate diploma or higher in occupational/enviro…
Typical start years; people vary by a year or two. Diamonds are exams. Stage list and sources in the pathway tab.
The bottleneck is finding an employer with an accredited >=20 hr/wk OEM role, not a selection panel. Ratings are the encoder's 1–5 call from college numbers and r/ausjdocs; applicant-to-place ratios double-count people who apply in several states. Evidence rows are in getting selected.
mental health, an accredited position with at least 20 hours a week of OEM practice and an approved Educational Supervisor. 42 months FTE across Stages A, B and C with written and practical exams; new curriculum from 2026. The bottleneck is an employer, not a panel — industry and mining, Defence, insurers and workers'-comp bodies, private occupational health clinics — and the jobs live on Seek and the ANZSOM board, not hospital portals. Best hours-to-income ratio on the list; the trade is fitness-for-work and medicolegal assessment, not treatment.
Most IMEs are simply soulless people who unofficially work for insurance companies. Horrible clinicians who are mercenaries for hire.
Better yet, occupational medicine.
I encourage you to read the Victorian Ombudsman's 2 reports into workers' compensation in Victoria. IMEs are guns for hire who take payments from insurers to kick injured workers off of workcover, some of whom then go on to commit suicide.
Have you thought about occupational health? I don’t know much about the field in general but I did aviation medicals on the side as a DAME for a while which was quite interesting. Was just a two week course in Melbourne to get the qualification.
All 22 curated quotes by topic, trajectories and threads.
racp.edu.au for the facts and summary, read 12 Sept 2026 · rating and pathway encoded by hand from the same sources · quotes are verbatim r/ausjdocs comments, community view not policy
Term advice: nothing encoded yet — not published.
Stages: racp.edu.au, reddit.com · terms: r/ausjdocs term-strategy collection, counted by distinct author, community view not policy
"Mandatory" is the college's word. Amber "community" rows are what the sub says panels actually want.
UNCERTAIN — verify with AFOEM before advising that AFOEM is fully BPT-free end-to-end. A GP Fellow can bypass the first exams and begin in Stage B but still does the full 3.5 years (trainee report).
Employers are unusual: industry and mining, Australian Defence Force, insurers and workers-comp bodies, private occupational health clinics (Sonic HealthPlus, Jobfit, Resile), state health staff-health units, Comcare. Advertised on Seek, the ANZSOM job board and industry sites — low state-health-board yield. Locum rates ~$140/hr appear in ads. College re-application typically by 30 November and 30 May.
Dates drift a week or two each year; the calendar has confirmed vs expected windows.
Employer-set selection; 0% college; no interview or rubric published. Gate: must have applied for or completed 'an appropriate postgraduate course at diploma level or higher in occupational and environmental health or a related field'; accredited post >=20 hrs/wk OEM practice.
Requirements and rubric: racp.edu.au · state mechanics: anzsom.org.au · community rows from r/ausjdocs
"Cost to get on" is a name-based pick of the one-off fees paid before or at selection. The college schedule is a lifetime-of-training list at each item's own year, not one bill; community amounts overlap it and are never summed. Courses, travel and repeat sittings are the part the sub complains about.
Exams and fees: racp.edu.au, medicalboard.gov.au · claims, prep and costs quoted: r/ausjdocs exams-and-costs collection, community view not policy · paid prep products need three independent non-suspect authors and a free alternative to appear
Scored by the Occupational and environmental medicine rules — whether or not the title names the specialty — highest first, closing soonest next.
No open job scores for Occupational and environmental medicine right now.
Main campaigns for 2027 closed between May and August.
Next windows: ACT main round closes 27 Sept · NSW second round opens 29 Sept · QLD early round closes 19 Oct · SA late vacancies open 22 Oct.
Faded bars are expected, not confirmed. Full detail on the calendar.
Jobs: last night's scrape, scored by hand-written rules (no AI) · units and offer reports: r/ausjdocs, counted by distinct author · campaign windows: canberrahealthservices.act.gov.au, health.nsw.gov.au, healthjobs.nt.gov.au +4
Verbatim, one caution beside one encouragement per topic where both exist, the rest folded. Every quote links to the comment.
Not an OccPhysician but in my experience in a past life: • Most are FRACGP who did additional training on the side • Training is 3.5 years full-time, however most training programs are only part time - so you’ll be looking at far longer time in training • Work **seems** to be less stable and very much contract…
Better yet, occupational medicine.
It's pretty niche. You're basically going to be doing corporate/industrial work - advising enterprise leaders about matters related to the health of their employees. They don't accept referrals per se as I have my doubts they even do clinical work. It's closer to Med Admin or Public Health. OEMPs would do things like…
Have you thought about occupational health? I don’t know much about the field in general but I did aviation medicals on the side as a DAME for a while which was quite interesting. Was just a two week course in Melbourne to get the qualification.
It's a specialty within General Medicine and General Practice. Seems most are Physicians/GP's who work on a part time basis with regulators and insurers doing IMEs and pre-employment reviews. Others seem to be full-time employees with larger companies in high risk industries. From the outside, it looks more like…
Its a growing specialty in Australia particularly in Qld and WA. Most start off in private occ heath clinics that service large businesses- medicals, health surveillance and injury management - all clinical, seeing generally healthy workers with a musculoskeletal injury. Then many take on a significant proportion of…
The other DAMEs I know do it at their usual GP practice. With a nurse who will do ECGs, VA, urine etc and the patient will fill out a long questionnaire that covers most of the history so time with the doc is a fairly quick physical and covering any points of concern on the questions. Most charge quite a high fee as…
A proportion of GPs delve into Medical Admin or Public Health or Occupational Health, which is more high-level policy, epidemiological and management stuff, rather than seeing patients at the coalface. Some really enjoy it and end up getting Masters and Fellowships in these other specialty areas. Apart from working…
I am an accredited AFOEM (Occupational and Environmental) trainee. Which questions do you have in mind. I could do an AMA if there is enough interest. Given you're already a GP Fellow you can bypass the first set of exams and begin in Stage B, but still need to do the full 3.5 years.
Hi, I think you'll have better luck looking through the old posts about occupational medicine on the Creative Careers for Medicine facebook page. From what has been said there, I believe the entire entry process has changed. https://www.facebook.com/groups/creativecareersinmed/permalink/1617006198986700/?app=fbl
I have some mates that did it and spoken to them about it. As an experienced GP, you can already do quite a bit of occupational health assessments and reporting without needing to become an OccPhys, such as fitness for work or injury management consultant or pre-employment medicals. However, if you want to do more…
I'm a trainee and I agree with much of what you've said. If you're an experienced GP and plan to do compensation work you don't need to do the formal training. Even with consulting you don't need the training, I know of an experienced GP who was working as the Chief Medical Officer of a mining company you've all heard…
I'm not an occupational physician, but I don't believe it's a "specialty within Gen Med/GP". It's a faculty within the RACP but has its own training programme and fellowship.
Occupational Physicians (OPs) have their own training Faculty within RACP. To become an OP, you can go via the BPT route or jump straight onto the last couple years of advanced training if you’re already a qualified fellow of another relevant specialty, typically GP. Either way, you have to do a GradDip/Cert or Masters…
The easiest way to get into occupational medicine is through general practice, although many Rehab consultants also do this. Although if you want to do environmental medicine to a high level the best way would be through the physician college I believe since the AFOEM is part of the RACP.
Most IMEs are simply soulless people who unofficially work for insurance companies. Horrible clinicians who are mercenaries for hire.
I encourage you to read the Victorian Ombudsman's 2 reports into workers' compensation in Victoria. IMEs are guns for hire who take payments from insurers to kick injured workers off of workcover, some of whom then go on to commit suicide.
The I doesn't standard for Indepedent. It stands for Insurance.
Can anyone elaborate on the billing practices for occ health? I’m a PGY3 and looking for a change, interviewing at a private occ health clinic in Adelaide and they have said the starting salary is a base rate (albeit quite good) but then as I learn the processes I can bill more and receive from the overall clinic…
I will preface this my saying I’m not an OEP, but most of the doctors I’ve seen work in this space are GPs who have built a special niche in the area. The training program does exist but I’ve never met anyone who’s been on. The pay for those GPs are quite good (well over 300K a yr is possible) but can be quite boring…
What is the pay like?
As a GP/RG, you don’t “have” to see workers comp cases, just like you don’t have to do any skin procedures or antenatal care if you don’t wish to. However, it is an inevitable and not uncommon reality that often GPs/RGs are primary care physicians are often the nominated treatment provider for injured workers. Also…
r/ausjdocs comments and posts, hand-curated from the occupational collection; scores as at the dump · community view, not policy
Knowledge rows last loaded 13 Sept 2026, encoded by hand from the sources linked on each panel; no AI wrote any of it. Compare specialties · calendar · all guides.