Provide adequate contracts for WA surgical trainees
The issue
Sign Now: Grant Western Australian Surgical Trainees the Employment Security They Have Long Sought
For eighteen years, the absence of long-term employment contracts for Western Australian surgical trainees has been identified as a significant issue within the profession. Despite the evident need and repeated calls for reform, no action has been taken. Surgical trainees, myself included, remain employed under short-term, rolling contracts that are renewed only one year at a time, with no provision for longer terms.
We respectfully call upon the North Metropolitan, South metropolitan and East Metropolitan Health Services to take timely action and implement multi-year fixed term employment contracts (of up to five years, aligned to the length of an individual trainee’s confirmed RACS Surgical Education and Training (SET) program to surgical trainees, in place of the current model of short, rotation-based contracts requiring re-appointment every 12 months.
Background/Evidence:
Current employment model for junior doctors and trainees in WA health. Interns employed by WA Health are appointed on a three-year contract from the outset of employment, under the WA Health System – Medical Practitioners AMA Industrial agreement. By contrast surgical registrars including SET trainees are generally appointed through annual, centralised recruitment rounds of fixed term positions, commonly advertised as 6–12 month appointments "with the possibility of extension(s)", requiring re-application or re-appointment at each cycle.
The RACS SET Program: RACS states that surgical training under the SET program generally takes five to seven years, following completion of internship and residency. RACS Trainees' Association (RACSTA) advocacy priorities already include work on transferable leave entitlements between Australian states and flexible training arrangements — indicating this proposal is consistent with existing college-level advocacy, not a new or isolated request.
Why This Matters
Contract insecurity places a significant burden on trainees. Persistent uncertainty about whether employment will continue beyond the coming months creates a substantial and ongoing source of stress for surgical trainees. This stress compounds the already demanding nature of surgical training.
The impact extends beyond the workplace. Short-term contracts make it difficult for trainees to plan their lives with confidence, including decisions about relocation, housing, family responsibilities, and long-term financial stability.
Short-term contracts create inequitable access to leave. Access to maternity, paternity, and carer’s leave depends on having an active contract. However, contracts are often not issued until training terms have been allocated for the following year, and this allocation frequently occurs late.
Consequently, trainees are unable to apply for leave to which they are otherwise entitled until a new contract exists. This particularly affects trainees seeking maternity, paternity, or carer’s leave. This arrangement serves no one’s interests. Trainees must delay leave applications until training terms are allocated and contracts are secured. By that stage, departments and training bodies are required to arrange safe and adequate staffing at short notice.
Unaccredited registrars are also affected. These difficulties are not limited to trainees in accredited surgical training programs. Unaccredited registrars, who form a significant proportion of the surgical workforce, are also subject to the same short-term contract cycle.
Unlike accredited trainees, they may not have access to an equivalent representative body to advocate on their behalf until they are accepted into an accredited surgical training program. Any reform to contract length should therefore take this group into account.
Longer contracts are already used elsewhere. Longer-term contracts for junior doctors and trainees, matched to the length of training, are already established in other settings.
In Western Australia, junior medical officers currently have access to three-year extended contracts. Obstetrics and Gynaecology trainees in Western Australia are employed under four-year core contracts followed by two-year senior registrar contracts. Surgical trainees in New South Wales and Victoria, where General Surgery training also runs for five years, are already employed under five-year contracts for the duration of their training.
By comparison, Western Australian surgical trainees are being left behind, both relative to other specialties within the state and to surgical trainees in other jurisdictions.
Western Australia risks losing skilled surgical trainees. In a competitive market for medical talent, the WA health system risks losing both current trainees and prospective applicants to jurisdictions that already offer long-term contract security.
Employment stability is an important factor in retaining skilled staff, particularly in competitive specialties. Without comparable security, Western Australia may become a less attractive place to train and build a surgical career.
Workforce instability affects patient care. The cumulative effect of prolonged contract insecurity, inequitable access to leave, and the loss of trainees to better-supported jurisdictions places further strain on the surgical workforce.
This has direct consequences for patient care. A stable, supported surgical workforce is better placed to provide safe, consistent, and high-quality healthcare to the Western Australian community.
Employment stability supports better training and better care. Longer contracts would allow surgical trainees to focus more fully on their training, professional development, and patient care. A workforce that is not preoccupied with short-term job insecurity is better positioned to perform at its best and build sustained surgical careers within Western Australia.
Longer contracts would remove an avoidable cost to WA Health. Every 6–12 months, WA Health re-advertises, re-shortlists, re-panels, re-credentials, and re-inducts doctors it already employs, on training pathways that are already confirmed for up to five years.
Nothing in that cycle produces new information or new capacity — it re-documents what the system already knows, at a recurring cost in staff time and expenditure. A single contract for the confirmed duration of training would end that duplication without any change to how trainees rotate between sites and terms, and without additional funding.
Our Ask
We respectfully call upon the North Metropolitan, South metropolitan and East Metropolitan Health Services to take action on this long-standing issue and implement extended employment contracts that span the full length of surgical training — five years for General Surgery trainees, and the equivalent full duration for trainees in other surgical specialties. Such reform would provide fair and secure employment terms that reflect trainees' contribution to the health system, remove existing barriers to accessing leave and entitlements, reduce attrition and workforce shortages, and support a stable, motivated surgical workforce equipped to deliver safe and effective healthcare across Western Australia.
We invite you to sign and share this petition in support of this necessary reform.
30
The issue
Sign Now: Grant Western Australian Surgical Trainees the Employment Security They Have Long Sought
For eighteen years, the absence of long-term employment contracts for Western Australian surgical trainees has been identified as a significant issue within the profession. Despite the evident need and repeated calls for reform, no action has been taken. Surgical trainees, myself included, remain employed under short-term, rolling contracts that are renewed only one year at a time, with no provision for longer terms.
We respectfully call upon the North Metropolitan, South metropolitan and East Metropolitan Health Services to take timely action and implement multi-year fixed term employment contracts (of up to five years, aligned to the length of an individual trainee’s confirmed RACS Surgical Education and Training (SET) program to surgical trainees, in place of the current model of short, rotation-based contracts requiring re-appointment every 12 months.
Background/Evidence:
Current employment model for junior doctors and trainees in WA health. Interns employed by WA Health are appointed on a three-year contract from the outset of employment, under the WA Health System – Medical Practitioners AMA Industrial agreement. By contrast surgical registrars including SET trainees are generally appointed through annual, centralised recruitment rounds of fixed term positions, commonly advertised as 6–12 month appointments "with the possibility of extension(s)", requiring re-application or re-appointment at each cycle.
The RACS SET Program: RACS states that surgical training under the SET program generally takes five to seven years, following completion of internship and residency. RACS Trainees' Association (RACSTA) advocacy priorities already include work on transferable leave entitlements between Australian states and flexible training arrangements — indicating this proposal is consistent with existing college-level advocacy, not a new or isolated request.
Why This Matters
Contract insecurity places a significant burden on trainees. Persistent uncertainty about whether employment will continue beyond the coming months creates a substantial and ongoing source of stress for surgical trainees. This stress compounds the already demanding nature of surgical training.
The impact extends beyond the workplace. Short-term contracts make it difficult for trainees to plan their lives with confidence, including decisions about relocation, housing, family responsibilities, and long-term financial stability.
Short-term contracts create inequitable access to leave. Access to maternity, paternity, and carer’s leave depends on having an active contract. However, contracts are often not issued until training terms have been allocated for the following year, and this allocation frequently occurs late.
Consequently, trainees are unable to apply for leave to which they are otherwise entitled until a new contract exists. This particularly affects trainees seeking maternity, paternity, or carer’s leave. This arrangement serves no one’s interests. Trainees must delay leave applications until training terms are allocated and contracts are secured. By that stage, departments and training bodies are required to arrange safe and adequate staffing at short notice.
Unaccredited registrars are also affected. These difficulties are not limited to trainees in accredited surgical training programs. Unaccredited registrars, who form a significant proportion of the surgical workforce, are also subject to the same short-term contract cycle.
Unlike accredited trainees, they may not have access to an equivalent representative body to advocate on their behalf until they are accepted into an accredited surgical training program. Any reform to contract length should therefore take this group into account.
Longer contracts are already used elsewhere. Longer-term contracts for junior doctors and trainees, matched to the length of training, are already established in other settings.
In Western Australia, junior medical officers currently have access to three-year extended contracts. Obstetrics and Gynaecology trainees in Western Australia are employed under four-year core contracts followed by two-year senior registrar contracts. Surgical trainees in New South Wales and Victoria, where General Surgery training also runs for five years, are already employed under five-year contracts for the duration of their training.
By comparison, Western Australian surgical trainees are being left behind, both relative to other specialties within the state and to surgical trainees in other jurisdictions.
Western Australia risks losing skilled surgical trainees. In a competitive market for medical talent, the WA health system risks losing both current trainees and prospective applicants to jurisdictions that already offer long-term contract security.
Employment stability is an important factor in retaining skilled staff, particularly in competitive specialties. Without comparable security, Western Australia may become a less attractive place to train and build a surgical career.
Workforce instability affects patient care. The cumulative effect of prolonged contract insecurity, inequitable access to leave, and the loss of trainees to better-supported jurisdictions places further strain on the surgical workforce.
This has direct consequences for patient care. A stable, supported surgical workforce is better placed to provide safe, consistent, and high-quality healthcare to the Western Australian community.
Employment stability supports better training and better care. Longer contracts would allow surgical trainees to focus more fully on their training, professional development, and patient care. A workforce that is not preoccupied with short-term job insecurity is better positioned to perform at its best and build sustained surgical careers within Western Australia.
Longer contracts would remove an avoidable cost to WA Health. Every 6–12 months, WA Health re-advertises, re-shortlists, re-panels, re-credentials, and re-inducts doctors it already employs, on training pathways that are already confirmed for up to five years.
Nothing in that cycle produces new information or new capacity — it re-documents what the system already knows, at a recurring cost in staff time and expenditure. A single contract for the confirmed duration of training would end that duplication without any change to how trainees rotate between sites and terms, and without additional funding.
Our Ask
We respectfully call upon the North Metropolitan, South metropolitan and East Metropolitan Health Services to take action on this long-standing issue and implement extended employment contracts that span the full length of surgical training — five years for General Surgery trainees, and the equivalent full duration for trainees in other surgical specialties. Such reform would provide fair and secure employment terms that reflect trainees' contribution to the health system, remove existing barriers to accessing leave and entitlements, reduce attrition and workforce shortages, and support a stable, motivated surgical workforce equipped to deliver safe and effective healthcare across Western Australia.
We invite you to sign and share this petition in support of this necessary reform.
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Petition created on 28 September 2026