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Media Release:
Australia fast-tracked 476 overseas specialists in 18 months. Only 11% are working in regional, rural and remote areas.
The Medical Board of Australia's evaluation of the Expedited Specialist pathway shows registration now takes six weeks. StatDoctor says the number to watch is where those doctors end up, and that the rural gap is now a hospital-side problem.
Brisbane, 29 September 2026: Australia's fast-track registration route for overseas trained specialists is working as designed, according to the Medical Board of Australia's evaluation of its first 18 months. StatDoctor, Australia's commission-free locum doctor marketplace, says the evaluation also settles a different question: registration speed is no longer the bottleneck for rural and regional access to specialists.
The evaluation, published on 2 September 2026 and funded by the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, covers the Expedited Specialist pathway from October 2024 to April 2026. In that time 656 applications were received and 476 internationally trained specialists were granted registration in anaesthesia, general practice, obstetrics and gynaecology, and psychiatry. Eighty per cent of complete applications were finalised within six weeks. Applications from overseas trained specialists in those four fields rose 29% across all registration routes.
More than 80% of the specialists surveyed reported a positive experience, and 90% would recommend the pathway to colleagues.
Where they went
Of the specialists registered through the pathway:
- 88% are practising in defined areas of workforce shortage, which include designated metropolitan priority areas
- 11% are practising in regional, rural and remote areas
The evaluation is candid on this point. It finds that 89% of specialists registered through the pathway are in metropolitan areas, that new supply is being absorbed within existing distribution patterns, and that distribution is shaped by broader government workforce policy settings that sit outside the Medical Board's remit. The Board cannot direct where a specialist practises.
StatDoctor's position is that this is exactly right, and that it moves the rural access problem from the regulator to the employers.
The gap is now on the hospital side
A specialist registered in six weeks still needs a roster to join. For a regional or rural health service, the mechanism for reaching a doctor it has never met is usually a recruitment agency. The vacancy goes to the agency, the agency goes looking, a margin is taken from what the hospital pays, and the doctor sees the rate only after the agency has decided what to pass on.
Most of the specialists in the evaluation are new entrants to the Australian health system: 82% had never previously held registration here. Few will have a network in Australia, a colleague who can vouch for a hospital in Mount Isa or Broken Hill, or an easy way to compare what a rural shift pays against a metropolitan one. The shifts they can see, at rates they can see, are the shifts they are most likely to take.
StatDoctor is built to be that channel. Health services post shifts with the rate attached, every eligible doctor on the platform can see them the same day, and doctors keep 100% of the contracted fee. Hospitals pay no markup on the doctors they book. A doctor can go from download to first shift in under 24 hours.
StatDoctor currently works with more than 600 verified doctors and over 340 health services nationally, and estimates it has saved health services more than $200,000 in agency fees to date.
Quotes attributable to Dr Anu Ganugapati, Locum Doctor and Founder, StatDoctor
The regulator has done its job. Most specialists on this pathway are now registered within six weeks. The number that matters next is 11%. If nearly nine in ten of those doctors are ending up in metropolitan areas, it is not because rural hospitals have no shifts. It is because the way those hospitals reach doctors is slow, expensive and goes through a middleman.
A regional health service should be able to put a shift, a rate and a date in front of every eligible doctor in the country the same afternoon, and pay that doctor every dollar of the rate. When that happens, the distribution problem starts fixing itself.
Most of these specialists are new to Australia. They do not know anyone here. That is exactly the group a direct marketplace helps most, because they can see every shift, every rate and every hospital that wants them without needing to know someone.
What StatDoctor is asking for
Regional, rural and remote health services to publish locum shifts and rates directly, so the doctors the pathway is bringing in can find them without an agency in between.
And as the pathway expands to emergency medicine, dermatology, general surgery and otolaryngology, for distribution to be reported alongside registration numbers, so the sector can see whether the next 476 land any differently from the first.
The Medical Board of Australia's summary of the evaluation is available at www.medicalboard.gov.au.
About StatDoctor
StatDoctor is Australia's locum doctor marketplace, connecting doctors directly with hospitals and health services without a recruitment agency in the middle. Founded by Brisbane locum doctor Dr Anu Ganugapati after years of navigating the locum booking system from both sides, StatDoctor lets health services post shifts and rates directly, and lets doctors keep 100% of the contracted fee, with no commission, no markup and no hidden charges. Doctors can go from download to first shift in under 24 hours, with payment within 48 hours of a completed shift.
Learn more at statdoctor.app.
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Dr Anu Ganugapati
Founder, StatDoctor
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