General physician recruitment for regional employers

General physicians assess adults with complex, chronic and multisystem illness, order and interpret tests, weigh how conditions and treatments interact, prescribe, and coordinate care with a multidisciplinary team.⁸ In a regional hospital the role can include leading the general medical unit, taking referrals from emergency and other specialties, and sharing the medical on-call.

Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians leads to specialist registration as a physician in the field of general medicine. After RACP Basic Training, including the written and clinical examinations, Advanced Training in General and Acute Care Medicine takes three years of full-time equivalent training.⁹ Specialist registration rests on an approved qualification such as an accredited college fellowship.¹⁰

A full-time Specialist under the Medical Practitioners Award 2020 must be paid at least $2,337.21 a week from 1 July 2026, and a Principal Specialist with at least eight years in the specialty after their highest qualification $2,962.73, both before the 10% on-call allowance the award pays specialists, who must be available for reasonable on-call and recall duties (a Specialist's rate is $2,570.93 a week with it⁷), where the award covers the role.⁶ State public sector award employees fall outside it, so public hospital physicians are paid under the instruments listed above.⁶

The median for specialist physicians, a group that spans every physician field and includes medical registrars training as physicians, was $3,620 a week for full-time employees in May 2025, nationally.⁵ No separate figure exists for general medicine, so we talk with you about salary, private practice rights and allowances that will compete for your hospital.

Tell us about the general medical unit: its beds, the registrars and residents in the team, the share of patients admitted through emergency, and the after-hours medical on-call. Then the level, from a newly fellowed consultant to a director of medicine.

Let us know whether you want a second interest such as geriatric, respiratory or infectious diseases medicine, outreach clinics in smaller towns, and whether the post is accredited for physician training.

Physicians weighing a regional post ask about the on-call frequency, the support of registrars and the chance to keep up a second interest. We look first for physicians with links to your region, then for consultants ready to leave a large city unit.

Tell us about housing, relocation help, outreach travel and leave for conferences and courses. We raise them in the first conversation.

If the right person needs a visa or sponsorship, our sister business Australian Immigration Agency can advise.

Register with Hire Australia and tell us your fellowship or training stage, your registration, your interests in general medicine and the towns that appeal to you. Consultants and advanced registrars are welcome, and we will talk with you about roles that fit.