a wide variety and range of illnesses within their scope of practice prior to referral to their non-GP specialist colleagues. Most urban GPs work in community-based clinics and deliver predominantly primary care, with a subset of rural GPs additionally working in hospitals to deliver secondary and emergency care. It is not uncommon for GPs to also complete extended skills training to broaden their clinical scope of practice; insofar that a subset of GPs proceed to attain formal accreditation in advanced areas of clinical practice (such as a GP who is accredited to provide anaesthesiology or obsetric services) and/or formally complete additional fellowship in another specialty field of medicine (such as a GP who is also qualified as a public health physician or palliative care physician). The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) and Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) are responsible for the accredtiation, education and training of GPs in Australia; medical practitioners who complete the registrar training program are awarded a Fellowship of RACGP (FRACGP) and/or ACRRM (FACRRM) and recognised as Specialists in the field of General Practice. Registrarship and specialist/vocational training in General Practice is typically 3 years or 4 years if additionally completing extended skills training to develop additional competencies to practice in rural and remote locations. Rural Generalists are upskilled GPs that are capable of delivering emergency and hospitalist medical care in rural and remote locations where non-GP specialist care and health resources are limited. Rural Generalist medical practice is in the process of becoming formally recognised as a subspecialty within General Practice by the AMC and AHPRA. Nevertheless, historically and coloquially the term 'Specialists' refers to medical practitioners qualified in a specialised field of medicine beyond the scope of General Practice. Medicare also makes this delineation for the purposes of appropriately allocating referrals, rebates and billings amongst GPs versus non-GP 'Specialist' Consultants. Medicare requires patients to see their GP first for a referral to see a Consultant (that is, if the patient intends to have Medicare subsidise costs associated with seeing the Consultant). In Australia, the healthcare system is predilected upon patients preferably seeing their GP for an initial assessment prior to consulting with a Consultant and returning back to the GP for ongoing primary medical care. Medical pracitioners who have not attained specialist fellowship qualification or registration with AHPRA are issued a restricted Medicare provider number that allows them to initiate