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Public Health Medicine Training Pathway

How to become a public health physician in Australia — the AFPHM faculty pathway (no Basic Physician Training, no Divisional exams), a 3-year Advanced Training built on a Master of Public Health, and a population-health career with a 9-to-5-friendly life.

The bottleneck is the opposite of cardiology: no scored selection and no exam wall — but AFPHM can't arrange posts, so you must find your own accredited (mostly state public-health-unit) job, and funded ones are few. The workforce is tiny and ageing, so jobs exist on the far side; getting in is about networking into a post, plus completing an MPH up front.

Why public health medicine

Mostly desk- and meeting-based, business hours. Day to day you might be analysing surveillance data on a notifiable disease, drafting outbreak control advice, sitting on a screening or immunisation policy committee, reviewing an environmental health risk, writing a ministerial brief, or running an epidemiological study. The 2016 NHWDS factsheet recorded clinicians in this field working an average of just 17.9 hours per week — a reflection of how part-time-heavy this workforce is and how many public health physicians sit in administrative, research, educator and policy roles rather than face-to-face clinical work. There are no ward rounds, no theatre lists and no procedural on-call; the on-call that does exist is health-protection rosters (e.g. communicable disease/outbreak response) in some units.

✓ Draws

Genuinely controllable lifestyle: business-hours, office-based, and one of the most part-time/flexible-friendly specialties in medicine (part-time training and 0.8 FTE consultant work are common).
Only one barrier exam (the AFPHM Oral Examination) — no Divisional Written, no Divisional Clinical, no OSCE marathon.
Broad, portable career: state and territory health departments, the new Australian CDC, academia, NGOs, WHO/global health, consultancy and medical administration all value the qualification.
An ageing, retiring workforce means real demand for the next generation of public health physicians.
High influence per hour — you can shape policy and prevention that affects whole populations, not one patient at a time.

⚖ Trade-offs

You must complete a Master of Public Health (or equivalent) before training counts — extra years and usually self-funded.
No college-arranged jobs: you have to find and win your own accredited training post, and funded registrar posts are scarce and geographically patchy.
Lowest-earning of the physician fields by a wide margin (mostly salaried state-government staff specialist roles, no procedural or fee-for-service upside).
Small, dispersed specialty — limited peer cohort, and in smaller jurisdictions you may be one of very few trainees in the state.
Career feels indirect to many clinicians: you trade the immediacy and tangibility of patient care for systems work.

Subspecialties

Communicable disease control / health protection (outbreaks, surveillance, immunisation)Environmental healthEpidemiology and biostatistics / applied epidemiologyHealth policy, planning and managementHealth promotion and preventionIndigenous / Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander healthGlobal and international healthAcademic public health and research

The training pathway

The same fellowship, two very different timelines. The fast route assumes everything goes right; most people land on the realistic one.

Fastest route

~6 years from internship

The structural floor if everything lines up: you do an MPH alongside your prevocational years, walk straight into a funded accredited post the moment you are eligible, and train full-time. Very few people actually do it this fast.

Internship (PGY1)

1 year

Full general registration. Counts toward the 3 years of postgraduate clinical experience AFPHM requires.

Prevocational years + Master of Public Health

2 years

Build the required 3 years FTE postgraduate clinical experience while completing an MPH (or equivalent) covering the AFPHM core disciplines. RACP allows up to one of the three required years to be in a health-related (non-clinical) field.

Secure an accredited AFPHM training post + RACP eligibility sign-off

0 (assumed immediate)

GATE: AFPHM does not arrange jobs. You must have RACP confirm your eligibility AND independently secure an approved position at an accredited setting before training counts. This is the real bottleneck.

AFPHM Advanced Training

3 years (36 months FTE)

Single phase of work-based training under a Fellow supervisor with annual Learning Contracts; includes the AFPHM Oral Examination and a research project.

FAFPHM

—

Fellowship of the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine — recognised public health physician.

Realistic route

~8–12+ years from internship (often entered as a career change)

What it usually looks like. Most people arrive later, after other clinical or research roles, fit the MPH around work, spend time finding a funded post, and train part-time (which is common in this faculty), which stretches the calendar well beyond 3 years.

Internship + early prevocational years

2–3 years

Most entrants do more than the minimum clinical time, often in general/acute roles, GP, or as a hospital medical officer, before pivoting toward public health.

Master of Public Health (often part-time)

1–3 years

Usually self-funded and fitted around work. Must satisfy the AFPHM core discipline areas (epidemiology, biostatistics, health protection, health promotion, and health policy/planning/management; the 2027 curriculum adds Indigenous health).

Finding and securing an accredited training post

0–2+ years

GATE: the genuine hold-up. Funded registrar posts are scarce and concentrated in state-government public health units; many trainees network in via project-officer or policy roles that then get accredited. No national applicant-to-offer ratio is published.

AFPHM Advanced Training (frequently part-time)

3–5 calendar years

36 months FTE, but part-time training (very common in this faculty) extends real time. Includes the AFPHM Oral Examination (max 3 attempts) and a mandatory Advanced Training Research Project.

FAFPHM + consultant role

—

Most Fellows move into salaried public health physician / staff specialist roles in health departments, the Australian CDC, academia or NGOs.

How competitive is it?

This is one of the least exam-competitive but most structurally awkward specialties to enter. The AFPHM Oral Examination — the only barrier exam — has consistently high pass rates (2025: 35/42, ~83%; 2024: 24/29, ~83%; 2023: 23/30, ~77%; 2022: 21/26, ~81%; 2021 across two sittings: ~85%), so the exam is not what stops people. What stops people is supply: AFPHM does not arrange or guarantee jobs, funded registrar posts are few and clustered in state-government public health units, and there is no national applicant-to-offer ratio published anywhere. The flip side is that the consultant workforce is tiny (362 specialists in 2016, of whom only 137 were working as clinicians) and ageing rapidly — roughly half were aged 60 or over and two-thirds intended to retire within ten years — so demand for new Fellows is real. Trainee numbers nationally have sat around only ~80 (82 in 2016), underlining how small the pipeline is.

Unaccredited time: No 'unaccredited registrar years' culture as in surgery. The real prerequisites are a Master of Public Health and 3 years FTE postgraduate clinical experience before training counts. Many entrants do informal public-health-adjacent roles (project officer, policy, research, GP) while waiting to secure a funded accredited post.

Sources: AFPHM Oral Examination pass rates (2021–2025) — RACP, NHWDS 2016 Public Health Medicine factsheet (362 specialists; 137 clinicians; ~82 trainees; age/retirement profile) — Dept of Health, AFPHM training positions are not arranged by the College — RACP.

Selection criteria & how to apply

There is no national scored selection rubric for Public Health Medicine. Unlike surgery's SET or a physician advanced-training computer match, AFPHM does not run a centralised, points-weighted competitive entry. Instead there are two things to satisfy: (1) RACP confirms you are eligible to enter (medical registration + 3 years postgraduate clinical experience + an MPH covering the core disciplines), and (2) you independently secure an approved training position at an accredited setting — which is where the actual competition happens, employer by employer. Because selection into the funded posts is run by individual health departments and units rather than the College, no published percentage weightings exist, so the components below are eligibility/assessed criteria, not a scored grid.

Master of Public Health (or equivalent)Eligibility

Mandatory entry requirement. Must cover the AFPHM compulsory core discipline areas — epidemiology, biostatistics, health protection, health promotion, and health policy/planning/management. From the 2027 curriculum the required disciplines are listed explicitly and include Indigenous health. No percentage weighting; it is a gate, not a score.

Postgraduate clinical experienceEligibility

At least 3 years FTE postgraduate experience, including an internship year with regular face-to-face patient contact and at least one further supervised clinical year; up to one of the three years may be in a health-related (non-clinical) field. A gate, not a ranked component.

Medical registrationEligibility

Full general registration with the Medical Board of Australia (or NZ general scope of practice with a current practising certificate).

Securing an accredited training positionAssessed (by employer)

The decisive step. AFPHM explicitly does not arrange jobs; you must win a position at an accredited setting (usually a state/territory public health unit). Where structured schemes exist (e.g. Queensland's centralised RMO-campaign recruitment, NSW's Public Health Training Program, the Victorian VPHMTS consortium) the host runs its own selection. No published national rubric or percentage weightings.

Public health experience, CV and interviewAssessed (by employer)

Prior public-health-relevant work (policy, surveillance, research, project roles), references and interview performance carry weight at the employer level, but there is no published, college-wide scored matrix to optimise against.

Key documents: RACP — Public Health Medicine Advanced Training (entry requirements, duration, positions), RACP — Public Health Medicine Curriculum Renewal (new curriculum from 2027; PREP closes 31 Dec 2026), RACP — AFPHM Oral Examination (format and eligibility).

Where training posts actually sit, state by state

Because the College does not allocate jobs, the practical pathway is determined by where the funded accredited posts live — overwhelmingly inside state and territory health departments' public health units, communicable disease branches and (now) the Australian/State CDCs. Each jurisdiction has an AFPHM Regional Education Coordinator (a senior Fellow) who knows the local posts. Only NSW, Victoria and Queensland run anything resembling a structured intake; elsewhere posts are ad hoc and not centrally advertised, and per-state position counts are generally not published.

NSW

Who runs selection: NSW Ministry of Health and Local Health District public health units. The flagship route is the NSW Public Health Training Program (PHTP), a 3-year workplace-based program run by the Ministry's Centre for Epidemiology and Evidence and recognised by RACP for training toward FAFPHM. AFPHM trainees also train in LHD public health units' communicable disease, environmental health and immunisation teams under Fellow supervision.

Where to apply: NSW Public Health Training Program / I Work for NSW — application portal.

Positions: Intake via the PHTP each year; exact number of positions not published. Additional AFPHM posts sit in LHD public health units and are advertised individually.

Worth knowing: The PHTP is explicitly 'recognised for the training of medical graduates towards Fellowship of the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP).' It is one of the oldest structured public health training schemes in the country (running since 1990) and most graduates remain employed within NSW Health.

Links: NSW Public Health Training Program — NSW Health, I Work for NSW (current vacancies).

VIC The Burnet Institute advertises one or two public health registrar training positions, of which one sits within the VPHMTS consortium; the role is offered at 0.5–1.0 FTE (up to full-time), with trainees rotating across Burnet, the Victorian Department of Health and another consortium partner over three years.

Who runs selection: Victorian Public Health Medicine Training Scheme (VPHMTS) — a Melbourne consortium (host institutions including the Burnet Institute and the University of Melbourne, with the Doherty Institute among the partner organisations and rotations to the Victorian Department of Health). Trainees are employed as public health registrars to undertake the AFPHM Advanced Training program.

Where to apply: VPHMTS / Burnet Institute & consortium recruitment — application portal.

Positions: The Burnet Institute advertises one or two public health registrar training positions, of which one sits within the VPHMTS consortium; the role is offered at 0.5–1.0 FTE (up to full-time), with trainees rotating across Burnet, the Victorian Department of Health and another consortium partner over three years.

Worth knowing: Applicants should already have been assessed by RACP as eligible to enter Advanced Training (or have applied and be awaiting an outcome), and hold an MPH (or be in the final year) covering the AFPHM core disciplines, before applying. It is a structured, supervised consortium model rather than a single-employer post.

Links: VPHMTS Public Health Registrar position description (2025) — Burnet Institute, VPHMTS Melbourne Consortium description (2025).

QLD Funded positions advertised via the RMO campaign each year (including two dedicated pathway positions); total number varies. Preference for temporary posts is given to existing AFPHM advanced trainees in good standing who require further training time, and in particular to those who held the position the previous year.

Who runs selection: Queensland Health runs the most centralised medical entry: funded public health medicine positions are managed by the Metro North Public Health Unit and advertised through the annual RMO/registrar campaign, with two dedicated 'pathway' positions that rotate through an accredited network of placement sites. Trainees work across communicable disease, environmental health and health surveillance teams. Queensland holds the single largest concentration of the national public health physician workforce (26.3% of clinicians in 2016).

Where to apply: Queensland Health RMO campaign / SmartJobs — application portal.

Positions: Funded positions advertised via the RMO campaign each year (including two dedicated pathway positions); total number varies. Preference for temporary posts is given to existing AFPHM advanced trainees in good standing who require further training time, and in particular to those who held the position the previous year.

Worth knowing: Selection is run by the Queensland Public Health Medicine Training Committee (Metro North PHU); the state's AFPHM Regional Education Coordinator is the contact for general advanced-training questions. Of all jurisdictions, QLD comes closest to a 'recruit like a normal registrar job' model.

Links: Public Health Medicine — Queensland Health Careers, Queensland Health SmartJobs.

SA Not published. Posts are ad hoc and depend on departmental funding; contact the SA AFPHM Regional Education Coordinator.

Who runs selection: SA Health, principally the Communicable Disease Control Branch within the Department for Health and Wellbeing (Health Protection and Regulation). Posts sit in communicable disease control, surveillance, environmental health and broader public health/policy roles under Fellow supervision. There is no centralised public-health-medicine intake scheme; positions are unit-based and arranged individually.

Where to apply: SA Health careers (I Work for SA) — application portal.

Positions: Not published. Posts are ad hoc and depend on departmental funding; contact the SA AFPHM Regional Education Coordinator.

Worth knowing: Smaller jurisdiction with a handful of accredited posts. The route is effectively: get RACP-eligible, then approach the Communicable Disease Control Branch / Regional Education Coordinator directly about an accredited position or a role that can be accredited.

Links: Communicable Disease Control Branch — SA Health, I Work for SA (SA Health careers).

WA Not published. In WA, as elsewhere, the practical reality is two steps — you need RACP to accept you into AFPHM training and you need to secure an accredited job, which may be a public health registrar position or another role accredited as a training position. At Boorloo PHU, registrars are offered a contract of up to three years during which they complete fellowship requirements through the PPHOTP.

Who runs selection: WA Department of Health and metropolitan public health units. The Boorloo (Perth) Public Health Unit within North Metropolitan Health Service runs the Perth Public Health Officer Training Program (PPHOTP) — a workplace-based program whose curriculum is based on the NSW Public Health Training Program and the AFPHM curriculum — and other accredited posts sit across WA Health public health units, communicable disease control, environmental health, epidemiology and policy. The Postgraduate Medical Council of WA (PMCWA) profiles the specialty for prevocational doctors.

Where to apply: MedCareersWA / Boorloo (Perth) PHU training program — application portal.

Positions: Not published. In WA, as elsewhere, the practical reality is two steps — you need RACP to accept you into AFPHM training and you need to secure an accredited job, which may be a public health registrar position or another role accredited as a training position. At Boorloo PHU, registrars are offered a contract of up to three years during which they complete fellowship requirements through the PPHOTP.

Worth knowing: Non-traditional roles (e.g. health policy positions) can be accredited if they meet the competencies and have a suitable supervisor. The Boorloo PPHOTP integrates employment and training in a single contract rather than splitting them.

Links: Boorloo (Perth) Public Health Unit training program — NMHS, WA Health, Public Health Medicine — PMCWA.

TAS Not published. Very small jurisdiction with limited posts; contact the TAS AFPHM Regional Education Coordinator.

Who runs selection: Tasmanian Department of Health — Public Health Services, under the Director of Public Health. Accredited AFPHM posts (where they exist) sit within Public Health Services covering communicable disease, environmental health and population health. No structured public-health-medicine training scheme; entry is via individually arranged, REC-mediated posts.

Where to apply: Tasmanian Department of Health careers — application portal.

Positions: Not published. Very small jurisdiction with limited posts; contact the TAS AFPHM Regional Education Coordinator.

Worth knowing: Trainee numbers are tiny and not separately reported. The practical approach is to engage Public Health Services and the Regional Education Coordinator directly about whether an accredited or accreditable position is available.

Links: Doctors in Training — Tasmanian Department of Health, Tasmanian Government Jobs (registrar search).

ACT Not published. Small number of posts; contact the ACT AFPHM Regional Education Coordinator.

Who runs selection: ACT Health — Health Protection Service (communicable disease control, environmental health, immunisation) and the Office of the Chief Health Officer. AFPHM training posts are arranged within these units. Note the ACT Physician Training Network is geared to general physician (RACP Divisional) exam training, not Public Health Medicine, so it is not the PHM route.

Where to apply: ACT Health careers / ACT Government jobs — application portal.

Positions: Not published. Small number of posts; contact the ACT AFPHM Regional Education Coordinator.

Worth knowing: As a small jurisdiction, PHM posts are arranged individually with the Health Protection Service rather than through any centralised intake. Don't be misled by the prominent ACT physician training network — that is for general/Divisional physician trainees, not AFPHM.

Links: ACT Health — Careers, ACT Physician Training Network (general physician training — not PHM).

NT Not published. Posts arranged with the Centre for Disease Control; contact the NT AFPHM Regional Education Coordinator.

Who runs selection: NT Health — Centre for Disease Control, within the Public Health Division under the Chief Health Officer, with units across the five NT health service regions (notifiable disease surveillance and response, TB and leprosy services, medical entomology). The NT carries the highest per-capita public health physician workforce in the country (4.5 clinicians per 100,000 in 2016) and offers heavy hands-on health-protection exposure.

Where to apply: NT Health Centre for Disease Control / NT Government jobs — application portal.

Positions: Not published. Posts arranged with the Centre for Disease Control; contact the NT AFPHM Regional Education Coordinator.

Worth knowing: Disproportionately important for its size: remote and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, TB, and outbreak work give exceptional health-protection training. Strong option for trainees who want frontline communicable-disease experience rather than purely policy work.

Links: Centre for Disease Control — NT Health, NT Government jobs.

How to optimise your application

The honest read: The AFPHM Oral Examination passes around 80% of candidates and there is no Divisional exam, no scored national selection and no match. The thing that determines whether and when you become a public health physician is whether you can get into one of a small number of funded accredited posts, almost all of which sit inside government public health units. So the entire optimisation problem is: get eligible early, get visible to the people who control those posts, and be willing to go where the jobs are.

Do the MPH early and make it count (tied to Master of Public Health (or equivalent), start From PGY1–2) — Start an MPH (often part-time) while you accrue your clinical years, and deliberately choose units that cover all the AFPHM core disciplines, including biostatistics and health protection. This removes the single biggest delay (an incomplete or non-conforming masters) and lets you enter the moment a post opens. Get RACP to confirm your eligibility in advance.
Network into a post through your Regional Education Coordinator (tied to Securing an accredited position, start 12–24 months before you want to start) — Contact your state/territory AFPHM Regional Education Coordinator (a senior Fellow) early — they know which posts exist, which are accredited, and when they turn over. Many trainees enter via a project-officer, policy, surveillance or research role inside a public health unit that is then accredited as a training position.
Be geographically flexible — follow the posts (tied to Securing an accredited position, start When applying) — Queensland holds the largest concentration of the workforce and runs centralised recruitment through its RMO campaign; the Northern Territory has the highest per-capita workforce and a busy Centre for Disease Control. NSW (Public Health Training Program) and Victoria (VPHMTS consortium) run structured intakes. Being willing to move to where funded posts are advertised dramatically widens your options.
Build a genuine public health portfolio before you apply (tied to Public health experience, CV and interview, start Throughout prevocational years) — Because selection happens at employer level on CV and interview, accumulate real public-health-relevant work — outbreak/surveillance involvement, an audit or epidemiological project, immunisation or screening work, a publication. This is what differentiates applicants for the scarce posts, since there is no points matrix doing it for you.
Enter under the curriculum that suits your timing (tied to Curriculum transition, start Decide before 31 Dec 2026) — Entry to the current PREP program closes permanently on 31 December 2026; all new trainees from 1 January 2027 follow the new competency-based curriculum (with Indigenous health explicitly among the required MPH disciplines and a new Training Management Platform). Know which set of requirements you will be held to before you commit.

Key documents & official links

FAQ

How long does it take to become a public health physician in Australia?

Advanced Training itself is 3 years (36 months) full-time-equivalent through AFPHM — there is no Basic Physician Training and no Divisional Written or Clinical exam. But before you can start you need full registration, three years of postgraduate clinical experience, and a completed Master of Public Health, and you have to find your own accredited training post. Realistically that adds up to roughly 8–12 years from internship, and many people enter as a career change after other clinical, research or policy roles. Part-time training (common in this faculty) stretches the calendar further.

Is Public Health Medicine competitive to get into?

It's competitive in an unusual way. There's no scored national selection, no computer match and the only barrier exam (the AFPHM Oral Examination) passes around 80% of candidates — so it isn't exam- or merit-list-gated like cardiology or surgery. The genuine bottleneck is that AFPHM explicitly does not arrange jobs and funded accredited posts are scarce and concentrated in government public health units. No national applicant-to-offer ratio is published. So 'getting in' is really about securing one of a small number of funded posts, often by networking through your state's Regional Education Coordinator.

Do I need a Master of Public Health, and do I have to pay for it?

Yes — an MPH (or equivalent) covering the AFPHM core disciplines (epidemiology, biostatistics, health protection, health promotion, and health policy/planning/management; the 2027 curriculum adds Indigenous health) is a mandatory entry requirement, not something you can pick up during training. It's almost always self-funded, and most trainees do it part-time around clinical work. RACP allows up to one of your three required postgraduate years to be in a health-related field, which can include masters study.

What exams do public health physicians sit?

Just one barrier exam: the AFPHM Oral Examination, sat towards the end of training. It's 8 questions across two 30-minute sessions, each before a panel of three examiners, testing how you respond to real-life public health scenarios. You get a maximum of three attempts. There is no Divisional Written exam and no Divisional Clinical/OSCE. Pass rates have run roughly 77–86% over 2021–2025.

What's the lifestyle and on-call like?

It's about as controllable as medicine gets. Work is overwhelmingly business-hours, office- and meeting-based — surveillance data, policy, committees, outbreak management, research — with no ward rounds, theatre lists or procedural on-call. The 2016 workforce data recorded clinicians in this field working an average of just 17.9 hours per week, reflecting how part-time-heavy the workforce is and how many sit in policy, research and administrative positions. The main exception is health-protection/communicable-disease roles, which can carry an outbreak-response on-call roster.

How much do public health physicians earn?

Less than any other physician field, and there's no clean published figure for it. The ATO does not publish a public-health-physician-specific income: in the ATO occupation tables (ANZSCO-based) physicians are broken out by named specialty (cardiologist, neurologist, and so on) and public health physicians fall into the residual 'specialist physicians / medical practitioners not elsewhere classified' categories rather than a line of their own. The headline specialist averages you see quoted are dominated by procedural and private-practice physicians and badly overstate this field, because public health physicians are almost all salaried state-government staff specialists with no fee-for-service or procedural earnings. Treat any 'specialist physician' figure as a gross taxable-income proxy for the broad group, not a public-health salary; realistic earnings sit on a state staff-specialist salary scale.

Can overseas-trained public health physicians work in Australia?

Yes, through the RACP's specialist (SIMG) assessment rather than re-doing training. You get qualifications verified by the AMC, apply to RACP (2026 application fee $1,096), and attend a comparability interview with AFPHM Fellows. If substantially comparable you typically do up to 12 months of peer review; if partially comparable, up to 24 months total of top-up training plus peer review before FAFPHM. An Accelerated Specialist Pathway exists for SIMGs from some countries (UK, Ireland, India, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka) and eligible specialties — check it actually covers Public Health Medicine for your qualification. Historically only a small share of new AFPHM Fellows are overseas-trained.

Where do public health physicians actually work?

Mostly inside government: state and territory health departments' public health units, communicable disease control branches and the new Australian and state Centres for Disease Control. Beyond that, academia and research, NGOs, global health (e.g. WHO), policy and consultancy, and medical administration. Queensland holds the largest single concentration of the workforce, while the Northern Territory has the highest number per head of population.

Is the job market good given how small the specialty is?

The demand side is genuinely favourable. The consultant workforce is tiny (362 specialists in 2016, only 137 of them working as clinicians) and ageing fast — around half were aged 60 or over and two-thirds said they intended to retire within ten years — while the trainee pipeline has stayed small (about 80 trainees). That points to real openings for new Fellows. The catch is the same one that makes entry awkward: funded posts are concentrated in government, so geographic flexibility matters for both training and consultant jobs.

Trained overseas? (IMG pathway)

How overseas-trained public health medicine doctors get recognised

Overseas-trained public health physicians seek specialist recognition with AFPHM through the RACP's specialist international medical graduate (SIMG) assessment, not by re-doing the whole training program. You first get your qualifications primary-source verified by the Australian Medical Council, then submit an RACP application (2026 application fee $1,096) and attend a video interview with RACP Fellows who decide your comparability. If found substantially comparable you typically complete up to 12 months of peer review (workplace-based supervised practice); if partially comparable, up to 24 months total of top-up training plus peer review before full Fellowship. From 2024 an Accelerated Specialist Pathway applies to SIMGs from certain countries (the UK, Ireland, India, Hong Kong and Sri Lanka) for eligible specialties — eligibility is specialty- and qualification-specific, so confirm it covers AFPHM/Public Health Medicine for your qualification rather than assuming it does. Historically very few public health physicians come via the overseas route — the 2016 NHWDS data showed overseas-trained doctors made up only a small share of new AFPHM Fellows.

See the RACP — Standard Specialist Assessment Pathway for SIMGs and our IMG internship guide.

Occupational & Environmental Medicine RACP (AFOEM)General Practice RACGP / ACRRM Infectious Diseases RACP Medical Administration RACMA Addiction Medicine RACP (AChAM)

Last reviewed 2026-06-01.