AFPHM does not place you — you find a funded job in a public health unit, ministry or Commonwealth agency, then apply to the College.
Typical start years; people vary by a year or two. Diamonds are exams. Stage list and sources in the pathway tab.
Posts are scarce and government-funded, and NSW PHTP is competitive merit selection, but there are few medical applicants — 'it's only as competitive as the jobs you apply for. 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.
Entry needs full registration, 3 years FTE postgraduate clinical experience (internship plus at least one further supervised clinical year plus a third clinical or health-related year) and a completed Master of Public Health covering five core areas; 'or equivalent' is gone from the new curriculum. Entry to the old PREP program closes 31 December 2026; everyone from 1 January 2027 enters the competency-based curriculum. Around 80 trainees nationally, one barrier exam (the Oral), salaried government pay, excellent hours. The MPH, not selection, sets your timeline.
Clinician-specific ones are rare it seems, those skills are valuable in many public health settings (not all) but sadly we don't value public health enough in this country.
Ah yes, public health and sexual health medicine, the most vigorously competitive specialties of all time, the chaddest of chads
Biostats is my number 1 recommendation, but you can get creative with diploma + masters in CS. Doctors with a MPH are wholly indistinguishable from those without. I just haven’t seen anyone gain any meaningful skills.
3. You don’t need to do BPT or any other speciality training to get onto public health training. See my original post for more info on exact entry requirements but entry only requires approx 3 years clinical work (internship + 2 more years) plus a MPH
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, caphia.com.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.
Core-area list differs slightly between the CAPHIA summary (five areas) and a trainee's relay of the 2027 curriculum (adds Indigenous Health) — do both.
Pass rates from a secondary source; fee from a community post.
Public health posts do not track the February clinical year reliably — scrape continuously. Also advertised via the PHAA job board, jobs.act.gov.au gazette, Seek, Ethical Jobs and LinkedIn. RACP deadlines 28 Feb / 31 Aug.
NSW Public Health Training Program (PHO Training Program): a distinct 3-year workplace-based program requiring a completed master's or doctoral degree in a public health field and 3 years FTE health-related employment; medically registered trainees employed at Crown Clerk Grade 9/10 (non-medical 7/8); competitive merit selection; rotations across PHUs and the Ministry; produces AFPHM-accreditable time. Recruits on its own cycle.
PHTP recruitment dates not captured.
Largest public health physician workforce in Australia; recruits Public Health Medicine Registrars through the RMO & Registrar campaign (Metro North/South PHUs, Communicable Diseases Branch, Cancer Screening), plus the Qld health public health medical training network and Aboriginal health orgs (QAIHC, IUIH).
Department of Health, Barwon Health ('Public Health Unit Medicine Registrar') and Monash; ad hoc.
Boorloo (Perth) Public Health Unit 'Registrar – Trainee – Public Health Medicine' via MedCareersWA.
Dates drift a week or two each year; the calendar has confirmed vs expected windows.
Employer-set selection; 0% college. 'Previous public health work experience/internships/jobs, volunteer work, roles on public health committees… and research experience help, but none of those things are essential.' 'Any research is good on your resume! I don't think it needs to be public health specific.' A Master of Public Health (covering epidemiology, biostatistics, health protection, health promotion, health policy) is a mandatory prerequisite, with an MPH Mapping Exerc…
Requirements and rubric: reddit.com, racp.edu.au, caphia.com.au · state mechanics: phaa.net.au, health.nsw.gov.au, careers.health.qld.gov.au +2 · community rows from r/ausjdocs
Hollow dots are hearsay — the poster was not citing a figure. A bar spans the components or years quoted; hover for the exact words.
"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, reddit.com, study.unimelb.edu.au +1 · 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 Public health 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.
Why? Are you intending to become a Public Health Physician or Medical Administrator? If not, it’s like $20K of coin spent on a degree that doesn’t have much relevancy to most other coalface clinical specialties. Unless you’re doing it simply to stats pad bloat your CV; of which, I would argue that publishing meaningful…
3. You don’t need to do BPT or any other speciality training to get onto public health training. See my original post for more info on exact entry requirements but entry only requires approx 3 years clinical work (internship + 2 more years) plus a MPH
What utility would it have? Most colleges wouldn't give it any extra points as it is a coursework degree. If you want soft prep for research do a Masters of ClinEpi and if you want prep for BPT do a masters of med. If you want college points do a MPhil/PhD or masters of surg (not sure if this one still has any points…
Also any research is good on your resume! I don’t think it needs to be public health specific. Employees are looking to see that you have research skills. Doesn’t really matter what the research topic is
TLDR How to get a job which suits the FAPHM training program? I've been deemed eligible by the faculty to start training but obviously it's dependant on finding a job. All of the ones on the preapproved list which I've checked so far aren't hiring at the moment. Information on how to get a job or get one approved is…
I know plenty of dual trained GPs and public health physicians! This is a very common path
Biostats is my number 1 recommendation, but you can get creative with diploma + masters in CS. Doctors with a MPH are wholly indistinguishable from those without. I just haven’t seen anyone gain any meaningful skills.
No need to do BPT! No need to do any other training beforehand See my original post for eligibility requirements. All you need is a few years of clinical work (internship + a few more years as a RMO/JMO + a MPH)
Hi everyone! I’m a public health physician and constantly get asked questions about the training program Thought it might be easier to set up one Q&A post Happy to answer any questions you might have here :) Some starters: - training is through RACP - training is 3 years full time equivalent - training is…
Hi, just to let you know that racp are changing the eligibility requirements for entry to public health training and are adding 2 new masters subjects that you have to complete This should come into effect in 2027
If you're going into public health, very useful and without it you wont be competitive. If you're not, then not so much. The subjects are quite interesting though.
Hi, I am doing an online MPH (CSP place) at UNSW. I'd recommend it although, I'm sure most degrees are similar. Note that some MPHs (e.g. UNSW) can be completed in 8 subjects whereas some take 16 subjects - I can't see the benefit of doing a longer one. Also note that the AFPHM entry requirements are changing in the…
Not just not competitive - an MPH is a prerequisite for public health training.
Plenty of people are dual trained. Lots of people with both GP and public health. But also plenty of other specialities eg paeds, ID, addiction medicine, emergency medicine, rehab, etc etc, are dual training in public health
To be accepted by racp onto the AFPHM program you need to have an accredited job. An accredited job comes with a supervisor. So the difficulty is in getting the job, not the supervisor. Accredited training sites are listed here…
the one that gives you csp
1. The AFPHM training program is through RACP. That’s the only option if you’re in Australia. I think NZ has a separate NZ college 2. To get onto the program you need to a) meet the eligibility requirements and b) get an accredited job. Once you have the job then you can apply to RACP to start training. Obviously…
UNSW is good with distance Ed on their MPH, however when applying for entry to training if you have done the subjects it doesn’t matter which one, as for jobs in NSW it’s irrelevant, much more about what you are bringing to the job than which uni you did your MPH at…
Unless you need it for entry into the public health training program, I usually tell trainees that an MPH is more about branding than skill development - that is, it highlights your interests in contextualising health rather than being a prerequisite to most jobs or training programs. If that’s you, it can be great to…
Adding for the commenters, it's a requirement for both public health and med admin training pathways that you can't apply for until pgy4 but can get rpl for, so saves you time. I think they're changing the public health requirements now against this though.
Another option is to apply for the public health training program in the UK, but it’s very competitive to get onto training there
Clinician-specific ones are rare it seems, those skills are valuable in many public health settings (not all) but sadly we don't value public health enough in this country.
From what I observed, PHPs are hens teeth rare, desperately needed, but not a pathway many seek to follow. Most PHPs appear happy to talk about their job to prospective new candidates. I used to ask them all the time about about various aspects of their role. Not sure where you’re located, but if you’re already…
Public Health Medicine Registrar grade roles for the Health Districts are typically advertised through annual recruitment campaigns for medicos. There are also Public Health Medicine Career Medical Officer grade roles at the Ministry of Health level that are occasionally advertised but typically for substantially…
have you completed an MPH? The faculty now requires you to complete an MPH or equivalent degree. It's probably a good idea to have GP as a fall back as public health doesn't always have the best FTE funding (I think your average health service would have funding for just under 3 FTE specialists (including the medical…
To add to your point, knowing how problems escalate at the coalface to then be able to give clear directions under a state public health act is important. For instance, knowing a fruit picker with an infection is likely living in close proximity to others, the level of care escalation the nearest medical centre can…
There aren't that many public health physicians in Victoria (which was part of the reasons we had problems with COVID). Wouldn't surprise me if the entire public health physician cohort were involved in the COVID response somehow.
The training gives you a very broad skill set which you wouldn’t necessarily have if you have just done a masters and PhD. If you’re working as a Public Health Physician at a local health district or public health unit, for example, you might be working on responding to measles and legionella outbreaks, responding to…
You need to find jobs that are being advertised and apply for them. The college (RACP) doesn’t advertise jobs, the jobs are advertised through the work sites themselves. Have a look at the list of accredited sites and then look at their websites’ career sections and sign up to job alerts. Also keep an eye out on Seek,…
I’m not sure about Qld. It really just depends how many registrar jobs there are vs how many registrars there are. Also depends on whether you are willing to travel rural or if you are only interested in metro jobs. Have a look at all the accredited training sites in Qld and send around emails asking to meet to discuss…
Public health physician the toughest most stressful job in Victoria a couple of years back!
If you’re on Facebook, there’s a private group that you can request to join called Creative Careers in Medicine and if you search for public health, you’ll find countless posts by registrars and consultants. The consensus from all of them is that their work is incredibly diverse - some work for the Department of…
Really varies with each job as the speciality is so broad and there’s so many different areas and jobs you can work in. I would say it’s usually a 9-5 or 8-5 with quite a lot of meetings during the day. A government job is probably longer hours eg 8-5 or 8-6 with some on call shifts. Probably a bit busier. A job at an…
Both answers depend on the job you have 1. Generally good depending on your job. Working in the covid response was hectic. But otherwise most jobs I’ve had have been very chill. Lots of options to work part time. Mostly 9-5 mon to Fri. If you work in health protection then there will be on call shifts (wfh)…
Ah yes, public health and sexual health medicine, the most vigorously competitive specialties of all time, the chaddest of chads
If you have a pulse, you're in
2. There is 1x exit oral exam (viva style). In my opinion that is the biggest/main training hurdle. Otherwise training is 3 years of fairly straightforward assessments. That being said a new curriculum is coming out. The exam is hard but if you do the study and put in the time you should be ok
4. Like any speciality program you need to pay college fees and exam fees. I think training fees through RACP are something like $3000-4000 a year from memory. The exit oral exam is currently $3350 https://www.racp.edu.au/trainees/examinations/afphm-oral-examination
r/ausjdocs comments and posts, hand-curated from the public-health 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.