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21 Sep 2025
The Medical Board of Australia welcomes the addition of rural generalist medicine as a new field of specialty practice.
Health ministers have approved the new field – making it only the second addition to specialty practice in 15 years – within the existing specialty of general practice.
It marks an important milestone in a long, multi-stakeholder campaign to improve health outcomes for regional, rural and remote communities of Australia.
Specialty recognition has been a shared goal of the Rural Generalist Recognition Taskforce which includes both general practice specialist medical colleges and the National Rural Health Commissioner, with wide stakeholder support. The Medical Board of Australia supported the proposal and recommended the recognition of the specialty to health ministers after a rigorous assessment process.
Rural generalists provide both comprehensive general practice and emergency care as well as care in at least one other area of medicine (such as anaesthesia, obstetrics, surgery or mental health) in hospital and community settings as part of a rural healthcare team. They are specifically trained to provide expert medical services in rural and remote clinical contexts where there is limited or no access to other types of specialists (non-GP specialists).
Medical Board of Australia Chair, Dr Susan O’Dwyer, said recognition of rural generalist medicine as a field of specialty practice was one thread in a tapestry of initiatives underway that aimed to improve health services to patients in regional, rural and remote communities.
‘This decision singles out the value of rural generalists and recognises the important, specific skills of eligible doctors, who provide much needed high-quality care to patients in regional, rural and remote communities,’ Dr O’Dwyer said.
There is a structured path to recognition of a new medical specialty, which involves detailed assessment by the Australian Medical Council (AMC), public consultation, a recommendation by the Medical Board of Australia and approval by Ministerial Council.
The Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) proposed the recognition, demonstrating to the Australian Medical Council (AMC), the Medical Board of Australia and ministers that there is a public benefit in recognising rural generalist medicine for the purposes of specialist registration.
The AMC can now assess training programs in rural generalist medicine for accreditation, ahead of the Medical Board deciding whether to approve qualifications for the purposes of specialist registration.
Once there is an approved qualification, medical practitioners with the approved qualification in Rural generalist medicine can apply to the Board for specialist registration in rural generalist medicine.
Only medical practitioners with specialist registration in rural generalist medicine can use the protected title ‘specialist rural generalist’. The Board is now working through transition arrangements for doctors practising in this area, pending the outcome of the AMC qualification accreditation process.
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‘This decision singles out the value of rural generalists and recognises the important, specific skills of eligible doctors, who provide much needed high-quality care to patients in regional, rural and remote communities,’ – Medical Board of Australia Chair, Dr Susan O’Dwyer.
