You cannot enter from prevocational years: the gate is RACP Basic Training with both divisional exams, or a fellowship from a prescribed college (GP is the shortest), then a 3-year, 6-term Advanced Training program with…
Typical start years; people vary by a year or two. Diamonds are exams. Stage list and sources in the pathway tab.
Registrar posts frequently unfilled — 'we are short of trainees!' The specialist job market is the real constraint (metro 1.0 FTE public posts 'extremely rare'), and the community is split on how bad it is. 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.
no exit examination and no national scoring rubric — posts are recruited locally, so relationships are decisive. Registrar posts are under-recruited most cycles and many unaccredited palliative registrar jobs are open to PGY3+; the specialist job market, especially metro public full-time, is much tighter than the trainee market. Income is 'bottom of the barrel medicine-wise'; job satisfaction is rated highly; the emotional load is real even if the roster is kind.
Alas, the connection between the need for a service and the government paying for a specialist doctor to do it via a salaried role is very weak in these times.
2) training is not difficult to get into - we are short of trainees!
For what it’s worth the physician trained palliative care consultants I worked with when rotating as a junior were notably more competent and had better understanding of conditions and their prognosis etc without needing to consult with every other specialist.
Very robust! Lots of job advertisements!
All 38 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.
Duration official (RACP); term breakdown is a trainee's description.
Employers: Tasmania Dept of Health (Doctors in Training Recruitment Campaign), NT (Clare Holland House non-accredited registrar), Mercy Health (Werribee inpatient registrar), Calvary, Eastern/Western/Northern Health, every metro hospice and community palliative service, ACT Gazette. Many palliative registrar posts are unaccredited/service roles open to PGY3+. Regional and NT posts are the easiest doors.
NSW JMO main round (14 Jul - 4 Aug 2026) for registrar/unaccredited posts; NSW staff specialists report increasing private consult work and a preference for >=0.6 FTE in public.
Palliative Care Registrar recruited in the Doctors in Training Recruitment Campaign 2027 (separate ad per position; registrar year 1 Feb 2027 - 7 Feb 2028).
Campaign URL shown is a sibling ad in the same campaign; the palliative ad URL was not captured.
Dates drift a week or two each year; the calendar has confirmed vs expected windows.
No national scoring rubric; posts recruited locally. Gate: BPT + both divisional exams, or prescribed-college fellowship.
Requirements and rubric: reddit.com, racp.edu.au · state mechanics: racp.edu.au, health.nsw.gov.au, careers.jobs.tas.gov.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 Palliative medicine rules — whether or not the title names the specialty — highest first, closing soonest next.
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.
For what it’s worth the physician trained palliative care consultants I worked with when rotating as a junior were notably more competent and had better understanding of conditions and their prognosis etc without needing to consult with every other specialist.
I did 6 months of pall care as an ICU trainee (I had to hunt for the job elsewhere, the dept I was working in didn’t give it to me) and it’s probably the best external training rotation I’ve ever done. It was extremely useful (still useful to this day) and I’d highly recommend it as a niche. You can do a dip pall care…
Ultimately makes little-to-no difference. The overwhelming majority of palliative care is done in the community. A very small amount will involve palliative care units and outpatient clinics, and less than 1% will ever go to a palliative care ward. If you're on the ward, you'll see a mix of GP and physician trainees.…
Has an alternative pathway via GP, so a shorter training time overall, and you could be working GP jobs during that training and not making med reg pay the whole time. When fellowed, you could then work as much pal care as there is, and fill out the rest of the time with GP, so it wouldn't matter so much if you didn't…
Cannot give you the numbers, but my sense of it would be 2/3rds of palliative care physicians come via BPT, 1/3rd via GP. Perhaps more via BPT in metro, more via GP in regional. I am in a regional area and we have two BPT trained, two GP trained specialists across our part of the coast. Even in metro, my sense of…
There are typically two main routes to become a palliative care physician either via the: 1) FRACP route: BPT then advanced training in PallCare (and combine it with GenMed or Oncology). 2) FAChPM route: GP (FRACGP or FACRRM) then advanced training in PallCare.
My experience is the opposite. GPs far better at working in resource limited environments without needing burdensome investigations, used to making decisions for themselves, and much broader understanding of conditions other than those that physicians see. Surely this is practitioner dependent and not specialty…
*Not Pall Care, Med Onc* Speaking to my pall care colleagues it does seem easier to do through BPT as you are required to do a term in med Onc which is harder to arrange (but not impossible) through GP training pathway. In saying that one of the best doctors I've ever worked with is a GP trained palliative care…
So you can do pall care either through BPT, or by first becoming a consultant in any speciality (not just GP or ACRRM) then tacking on a pall care speciality. So for that reason going BPT pathway or GP pathway (presuming you pass exams first go) is probably quickest. However the fact you can tack it on to most things…
It is. You can do a advanced training with the RACP after finishing basic physician training. But there is also a pathway for GPs to do a fellowship. So for those who want to do Pal care and think BPT and med reg years look a bit crap it can be a good option. Or if you're already a GP and have an interest in it.
My wife is a palliative care specialist and works predominately in an inpatient/hospice setting but also does outpatient clinics. Currently she is 100% public practice so the differences in item numbers don’t affect her much and it’s never been a barrier career-wise that she did it from a GP background. If anything…
Will recommend the FRACGP route. Just from personal observation. The good palliative care physicians I have met usually come from this college. Speculating here, probably because their hours are more flexible, the training not as long and they can probably offer more in the community as a GP. They have GP to fall…
I did the diploma of palliative medicine as part of extended skills in GP training. Very useful if looking after an older population (e.g aged care) for if that's your interest. Can also enter AT for Pall Med from being a fellowed GP (FRACGP or FACRRM) However, if you are set of palliative medicine from the…
You don’t have to do physician training or gp although they are the most common. You can have a fellowship in other specialities and be considered. Both ICU and ED are options.
Alas, the connection between the need for a service and the government paying for a specialist doctor to do it via a salaried role is very weak in these times.
Decent amount of metro work in public and private for a dual-trained GP and PallCare Physician. For instance, I know of a few that are fractional Staffie at NSLHD (public), VMO at Sydney Adventist Hospital (private), and part-time in GP land. Earning reasonable coin and doing interesting and meaningful work; a bit of…
Pall Care is severely underfunded at the health service level and there seems limited interest to increase FTE or beds. Probably will be jobs but not a sea of options. I hear the private sector is rough as it is hard to fill the books with patients who see you beyond a few weeks.
I have not yet heard of anyone in metro NSW without a boss job. Nearly everyone works less than full time but I think that’s by choice. There is increasing private work available - mainly consult work in private hospitals which would be hard to live off alone but certainly allows you to work 2-3 days public and then…
It’s a dead end…
I only have experience in NSW. There seem to be jobs coming up both in and outside Sydney pretty regularly. And at least where I work, there's more FTEs to pick up if anyone wants it. Training time is the same as any other RACP speciality - 3 years AT after BPT, or through GP pathway (that I don't know how long).…
Look into another speciality. There are no jobs. While caring for patients and families have been an absolute privilege the end outcome is a whole lot of palliative consultants superfluous to needs who have no value and that is very obvious and the psychology of this is devastating. No end of hoop jumping for heads of…
Very robust! Lots of job advertisements!
Career Prospects: as with most other specialties, lots of job opportunities regionally and rurally, but much less in metro. I would say pall care is still a bit easier for public hospital jobs compared to things like cardiology or nephrology. However, private pall care isn’t really a thing (you can see private…
Everyone dies so the job market is probably ok. /s
It's a separately speciality to GP (but which you can use the GP ticket to enter training with) - so most people who end up doing the whole hog end up end up working as pall care physicians within hospital or community networks rather than a GP with extra skills. Speaking as a GP, we'd often refer or consult with pall…
Easy to find work in private hospitals. Public is a touch trickier.
Your main limitation there is likely the 0.5 in a way, as we are preferring 0.6 and higher in public generally these days. May also find it a bit difficulty to do all three settings in a small slice, although focussing one 1-2 is easier. Jobs are around. We have a chunk of colleagues in NSW who are semi retirement age…
Edit to add: the other thing a lot of GP trainees have told me is that the paycut from being a GP to AT salary is really rough! So that's something to keep in mind for people considering this path. Also some hospitals require pall care physician ATs to still do med reg shifts, whilst GPs are exempt.
Hijacking your ETA about the pay- this depends entirely on where you train. I always struggled with the intense cognitive load of GP and burnt out every time I tried more than 0.7FTE. Max income (ever) was about $210k as a result. Now I'm just coming to the end of my first year as an AT (not pall care but a different…
The 1st paragraph basically state that GP can claim all the item numbers that a non-GP Pall care specialist can claim EXCEPT for the 9XXXX which are the teleconference numbers. Which also mean, if the patients cannot attend, then the GPs should/can only do home visits (which is often a negative from financial…
For specialities that are non-procedural, you are stuck with the 250k maximum per a 1.0 FTE job. On that note, 1.0s are extremely rare in metro (no jobs) so you’d be looking regionally if you want public full time work.
Outside of General and Geriatrics, specialties like Palliative Care, Rehab, Addiction Medicine and Sexual Health tend to be more accessible post-BPT in many regions. Neurology and Endocrinology are typically competitive and very competitive - Endo in particular, due to limited training spots and strong interest. It's…
1. Complete your resident years (2-3 years) then do either basic physician training (three years) or GP (two years), then palliative care training after that. 2. Not at all from what I’ve heard. 3. Plenty of urban work. Even more in rural areas, such is the way with practically every specialty in Australia. There’s…
2) training is not difficult to get into - we are short of trainees!
I’ve always thought palliative care would be the right speciality for me, I finally got a pal care job and whilst I enjoy it I find I am starting to lose empathy towards some families. I’ve had a recent string of extremely demanding and unreasonable families, in all of the cases the patients were aged 90+, and had…
Do your best to separate from them. Much like our Paeds colleagues will report, the worst part of the gig is the families. They will accuse you of all sorts of nonsense and unfortunately the media doesn't help the image of palliative care. When I explain the concept of PRNs and syringe drivers, many still are of the…
It is human to feel irritated or annoyed when you come across such fundamental divergence in points of view. You need a safe space in your team to vent or debrief, take a break and reset.
I have been a Palliative Care Staff Specialist working in regional NSW for five years. It is a great job. It is slow medicine. You get to build relationships and rapport with your patients and their families, supporting them at a very difficult time. The other clinicians you work with (nursing and allied health…
r/ausjdocs comments and posts, hand-curated from the palliative 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.