Funding your skills: the Rural Procedural Grants Program, rural generalist recognition, and eligible Medcast courses

Rural and remote clinicians carry an extraordinary breadth of responsibility. On any given day you might run a GP clinic, cover the emergency department, stabilise a critically unwell patient for retrieval, and provide anaesthetic, obstetric or surgical care — often as the most senior doctor on site, and sometimes the only one. Keeping those procedural and emergency skills sharp isn't a luxury. It's what allows communities far from a tertiary centre to receive safe, timely care close to home.

The good news: the Australian Government helps fund exactly this kind of upskilling through the Rural Procedural Grants Program (RPGP) — and several of Medcast's most respected emergency and resuscitation courses, including Advanced Life Support (ALS), Paediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) and The ALERT™ Course, are eligible for grant funding.

A landmark moment for rural medicine

There has never been a more fitting time to invest in your procedural and emergency capability. In September 2025, Australia's Health Ministers formally recognised Rural Generalist Medicine as a new field of specialty practice within general practice — the culmination of a multi-year, Commonwealth-funded joint effort by the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP).

This is more than a title. Rural generalists are rural GPs who deliver comprehensive primary and emergency care plus advanced skills in at least one additional area — obstetrics, anaesthetics, surgery, mental health, or culturally responsive care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Formal recognition establishes a national standard for that scope of practice, makes the career pathway more visible, and helps ensure rural generalists are properly valued for the vital work they do. From March 2027, "specialist rural generalist" becomes a protected title, with Rural Generalist Medicine listed on the national register of medical specialties.

Recognition raises the bar — and maintaining a broad, high-stakes skill set to that standard is precisely what the RPGP is designed to support.

What is the RPGP?

The RPGP is an Australian Government initiative that helps cover the cost of continuing professional development (CPD) for procedural GPs and rural generalists — and eligible locum GPs — working in rural and remote areas within the Modified Monash Model 3-7 regions. By subsidising the cost of maintaining and enhancing procedural and emergency medicine skills, the program helps keep skilled doctors, and the services they provide, in the communities that need them most.

The program has two components:

• Procedural — for rural procedural GPs/RGs practising in surgery, anaesthetics and/or obstetrics.
• Emergency — for rural GPs/RGs practising emergency medicine, including emergency mental health.

You can register for both components if you meet the eligibility criteria for each.

How much funding is available?

Eligible doctors can access grants of up to $32,000 per financial year to support their training and professional development. Funding can be applied to course fees, travel, accommodation, locum relief and other costs associated with completing eligible activities, with different caps applying to each component.

There's also flexibility in how you learn. Since 1 October 2025, the program supports hybrid activities (a minimum of three hours online plus three hours face-to-face), claimable at $1,500 per day — capped at 10 days for Procedural GPs and 3 days each for Emergency Medicine and Emergency Mental Health. Hybrid claims form part of your existing caps rather than sitting on top of them.

Grant amounts, caps and eligibility (including the rural and remote locations covered) are set by the program. Always confirm the current detail in the official RPGP guidelines before you enrol or claim.

Eligible Medcast courses

Medcast is a leading provider of high-quality, practical medical education, and our emergency and resuscitation courses are trusted by clinicians across the country. The following Medcast courses are eligible for grant funding under the RPGP:

Advanced Life Support (ALS) — evidence-based adult resuscitation aligned to ANZCOR guidelines, available in blended and face-to-face formats.
Paediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) — recognition, treatment and stabilisation of the critically unwell child, with emphasis on the subtle and severe presentations that matter most before transfer.
The ALERT™ Course — Acute Life-threatening Emergencies, Recognition and Treatment. Built around a structured ABCDE approach, ALERT™ develops confidence in assessing and managing deteriorating and critically unwell patients across pre-hospital, urgent care and acute hospital settings. Delivered by experienced critical care educators through interactive case studies and clinical scenarios, and formally accredited with RACGP and ACRRM.

Each of these courses is designed to translate directly into better recognition, faster intervention and improved outcomes for the patients you see — the exact capabilities the RPGP exists to strengthen.

How to claim

1. Read the current RPGP guidelines and confirm your eligibility, including the requirement to hold unsupervised clinical privileges in the relevant procedural or emergency area.
2. Register with your college (RACGP or ACRRM) before attending any activity you intend to claim, submitting your Scope of Clinical Practice and supporting documentation.
3. Once registered, enrol in your chosen Medcast course.
4. Keep records of all course-related expenses and receipts.
5. Complete and submit your claim with the supporting documentation within the required timeframe. Note that for blended courses, the face-to-face and online portions are claimed on separate forms.

Invest in the skills your community relies on

Rural generalist recognition has put a national spotlight on the breadth and value of rural procedural and emergency practice. The RPGP makes it easier to keep those skills current — and Medcast's ALS, PALS and ALERT™ courses give you rigorous, practical ways to do it.

Explore our eligible courses and start your RPGP journey today. If you'd like help identifying the right course for your scope of practice, or arranging training for your team, our education team is here to help.

Useful links

• Rural Procedural Grants Program — Department of Health, Disability and Ageing: https://www.health.gov.au/our-work/rpgp
• RPGP — RACGP: https://www.racgp.org.au/the-racgp/faculties/rural/rural-procedural-grants
• RPGP — ACRRM: https://www.acrrm.org.au/support/grants/rpgp

The information in this article is current at the time of writing. Grant amounts, caps and eligibility criteria are set by the Australian Government and its partner colleges and may change — always confirm the latest detail in the official RPGP guidelines before enrolling or claiming.