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Specialist registration is available to medical practitioners who have been assessed by an AMC accredited specialist college as being eligible for fellowship. Fellowship is not a pre-requisite for specialist registration.
The Ministerial Council has approved a list of specialties, fields of specialty practice and specialist titles.
Medical practitioners with the necessary qualifications in the approved specialties will be included on the Specialist Register and their specialist title will be protected by law.
During the transition to the National Law, a range of other medical practitioners were able to be included on the specialist register as a ‘one-off‘ transitional arrangement.
These included:
As this was a transitional arrangement, no other medical practitioners will be eligible to be recognised as specialists through these routes after 30 June 2010.
The Board’s publicly available specialist register will be accessed by Medicare Australia to verify that a practitioner’s patients are able to obtain a specialist level rebate.
The list of specialties, fields of specialty practice and related specialist titles is available under Specialties and Specialty Fields.
Following Commonwealth Government changes to the Health Insurance Act 1973 which came into effect on 16 June 2021, GP access to Medicare rebates is now linked to specialist registration with the Medical Board of Australia. GP fellows must have specialist registration to access Medicare rebates. See the FAQs for more information.
Ahpra publishes an online Register of Medical Practitioners that provides the profession and the public with up to date information about a practitioner’s registration status. This now includes a Specialists Register, including details of practitioners’ specialty and field of specialty practice, consistent with the list of specialties, fields of specialty practice and specialist titles approved by the Ministerial Council.
Application forms for specialist registration are available on the Forms page.