Anaesthetist
Anaesthetists are the specialist doctors who put patients to sleep for surgery and keep them safe and pain-free while it happens.
- Median salary
- $431,200
3.6%vs last year, before tax
- People employed
- 7,400
2.8%vs last year
- Projected growth
- +33.2%
to 2035
- AI exposure*
- Low
- automation risk
- Average hours
- 46/wk
+6h vs all jobs
- Shortage status
- In shortage
national
Anaesthetists work mainly in hospital operating theatres, where they are the doctor responsible for a patient's breathing, blood pressure and pain throughout an operation. They also cover pre-admission clinics, labour wards, emergency departments and pain clinics. The role is often confused with intensive care medicine: anaesthetists manage someone through a procedure, while intensive care specialists look after critically ill patients over days and weeks.
How much do anaesthetists earn?
The median full-time salary for an anaesthetist is $431,200 per annum, before tax, up $92,100 since 2018.
Public hospital anaesthetists are usually paid under state health service awards or enterprise agreements, which set the salary bands and the loadings for on-call, recall and overtime. In private practice, income depends on the fee for each procedure and how many lists you run, so it moves with your hours and your case mix. Subspecialty matters too, since obstetric, cardiac, paediatric and pain medicine work carry different demands and different rates.
What does an anaesthetist do day to day?
The list below is what fills most weeks; the exact mix shifts with seniority and whatever stage the current work is at.
- Reviewing a patient's history, test results and medications before surgery, then deciding which anaesthetic is safe for them
- Inserting intravenous lines and, for some operations, placing ultrasound-guided nerve blocks or spinal injections
- Inducing anaesthesia and securing the airway, which may mean a breathing tube, a laryngeal mask or a mask held by hand
- Watching blood pressure, heart rhythm, breathing and depth of anaesthesia through the operation and adjusting drugs as the patient responds
- Handing over to recovery staff and writing a pain plan for the hours afterwards
What skills do anaesthetists need?
Employers look for patient care and support, medication management, clinical assessment and treatment, backed by Anaesthesia delivery systems fluency and strong attention to detail.
Specialist skills
- Patient care and support
- Medication management
- Clinical assessment and treatment
- Emergency response
- Care planning and coordination
Software and tools
- Anaesthesia delivery systems
- Physiological monitors
- Ultrasound machines
- Electronic medical records (Epic, Cerner)
- Airway management equipment
General skills
- Attention to detail
- Written communication
- Problem solving
Is the job growing?
About 7,400 people work as anaesthetists in Australia, and employment is projected to grow 33.2% over the decade to 2035. That's very strong growth. Few roles in Australia are expanding this fast, and it points to solid demand for years to come.
How do you become an anaesthetist?
Here's the path most anaesthetists take, step by step.
- 1Complete a medical degree
Entry is either straight from school into an undergraduate medicine course or, more commonly, through a graduate-entry Doctor of Medicine after a first degree. Either way it runs four to six years and includes hospital placements.
- 2Finish your internship year
A supervised 12 months in a teaching hospital, usually with rotations through surgery, medicine and emergency. Completing it moves you from provisional to general registration with the Medical Board of Australia through AHPRA.
- 3Work as a resident medical officer
A few years of hospital terms, ideally including intensive care, cardiology and respiratory, while you sit the primary exams and apply to the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists. Training places are competitive, so critical care terms, audits and research all help your application.
- 4Complete the anaesthesia training program
Roughly five years of supervised training across public and private hospitals, with rotations through obstetrics, paediatrics, pain medicine and intensive care, followed by final exams and the Fellowship of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists.
- 5Work as a consultant anaesthetist
Fellowship qualifies you to work as a staff specialist in a public hospital, in private practice, or a mix of both, and to take on on-call rosters for emergency work.
Ready to apply as an anaesthetist?
Whether you're working toward becoming an anaesthetist or already are one and want a hand with the next step (sharpening your resume for ATS screening, tightening your cover letter, or knowing what you'll actually be asked at interview), here are examples grounded in this specific role, not generic templates.
What jobs can an anaesthetist move to?
None of the roles anaesthetists typically move into pay more than the role itself. Intensive Care Specialist is the closest match. If a bigger salary is the goal, moving up into a senior or principal position within the role is usually the faster route than moving sideways.
| Move to | Typical pay change | Overlap | Retraining |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intensive Care Specialist Anaesthetists bring advanced airway and critical care skills to intensive care, though formal intensive care training is required. | −$207,600 | 64% | requalify |
Moves are chosen from Jobs and Skills Australia's Data on Occupation Mobility, which follows income tax records between 2011-12 and 2020-21, together with entry requirements and skill overlap. A known move is one people were seen making in that data. Pay change compares median full-time pay for the two roles.
Who works as an anaesthetist?
The typical anaesthetist is 49 years old; 68% are men, 90% work full-time, and full-timers average 46 hours a week.
- 49
- Median age
- 32%
- Female share
- 90%
- Full-time
- +6h
- vs all-jobs avg
What's it like being an anaesthetist?
The job runs to the rhythm of theatre lists: an early start, a planned sequence of cases, and long stretches of close attention punctuated by emergencies that arrive without warning. Much of the pressure comes from being the person who owns the airway and the drugs, often for patients who are frail or acutely unwell. It suits people who like working to a routine within a small team, and who are comfortable holding steady when something goes wrong.
What people like
- You see the effect of your work within minutes. Adjust a drug and the blood pressure, heart rate or depth of anaesthesia answers almost immediately, so feedback on your judgement is fast and concrete.
- The work covers more ground than the operating theatre. A week can hold epidurals on the labour ward, a paediatric list, chronic pain procedures and an emergency trauma call, and you can subspecialise if one of those appeals more than the others.
- Small teams with one patient at a time. You work shoulder to shoulder with the surgeon and theatre nurses, and you are looking after a single person rather than a ward of them.
- The list gives the day a shape. Cases are booked in advance and the theatre runs to a schedule, so the work is more predictable than many hospital jobs even though the patients are not.
What people find hard
- Nights, weekends and on-call. Emergency caesareans, trauma and bowel obstructions arrive at any hour, and someone has to be available and awake for them.
- A long road before the pay reflects the work. A medical degree, an internship, prevocational years and about five years of specialist training with exams sit between you and consultant work.
- Rare moments that turn in seconds. A difficult airway, anaphylaxis or an unwell patient mid-operation demands quick decisions, and the consequences of getting it wrong are serious.
- Long stretches of watching and waiting. A routine operation can mean hours of monitoring stable numbers and staying still, which some people find tedious once the induction is over.
Based on our synthesis of professional-body surveys and public accounts of the role, not first-person verified reviews.
Which industries employ anaesthetists?
Health Care and Social Assistance employs the largest share of anaesthetists.
Top employing industries
- 1Health Care and Social Assistance
Ranked by employment share; the source doesn't publish an exact percentage per industry.
| Postgraduate | 50.3% | |
|---|---|---|
| Bachelor degree | 46.7% | |
| Diploma / Advanced Diploma | 0.7% | |
| Year 12 or below | 0.2% | |
| Certificate III/IV | 0% |
Will AI replace anaesthetists?
Anaesthesia is one of the less exposed medical specialties, because the core of the job is physical and immediate: securing an airway, placing a block, and reading how a patient is responding in real time. Technology has changed the monitoring and the record keeping rather than the hands-on work, with anaesthesia information systems capturing vital signs and drug doses automatically and target-controlled infusion pumps helping hold a steady depth of anaesthesia. Someone still has to decide what the patient needs and act when it changes.
Share of typical working time by exposure level
- Monitoring and adjusting during surgerySoftware trends the numbers and sounds alarms, but choosing the next drug or fluid for a bleeding patient is a bedside judgement.35%low
- Delivering the anaestheticInduction, airway management and nerve blocks are manual skills performed on a person who cannot speak for themselves.30%low
- Pre-operative assessment and planningRisk calculators and decision-support tools help flag a difficult airway or cardiac risk, but the plan and the conversation about it remain the anaesthetist's.20%moderate
- Records, billing and auditAnaesthesia information systems already log vital signs and doses as they happen, and coding tools draft much of the billing and audit paperwork.15%high
Common questions about becoming an anaesthetist
Straight answers to the questions people ask most.
How much do anaesthetists earn in Australia?
Anaesthetists earn $431,200 per year before tax at the median, which places them among the highest paid medical specialties. Public hospital pay follows state awards with loadings for on-call and overtime, while private practice income depends on how many lists and procedures you take on.
How do you become an anaesthetist?
The route is a medical degree, an internship year, several years as a resident medical officer, then around five years of training with the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists. You need general registration with AHPRA before you can apply to the training program, and places are competitive, so intensive care terms, audits and research strengthen an application.
Are anaesthetists in demand in Australia?
Anaesthetists are currently in shortage nationally, and their employment is projected to grow 33.2% over the decade to 2035. Hospitals cannot run an operating list or a labour ward without one, so the work follows surgical and pain services rather than the wider economic cycle.
Will AI replace anaesthetists?
Automation reaches the monitoring and the paperwork more than the hands-on work, which is why the specialty sits at the low end of exposure. Software already records vital signs, controls infusion rates and flags changes in depth of anaesthesia, but securing an airway, placing a nerve block and deciding what to do when a patient deteriorates are physical, real-time tasks.
What can anaesthetists move into?
Anaesthetists who move into intensive care take strong airway and critical care skills with them, though intensive care requires its own formal training, and anaesthetists earn $207,600 less than intensive care specialists. The move also runs the other way: general practitioners and resident medical officers who complete anaesthesia training qualify as specialists, and anaesthetists earn $304,000 more than general practitioners and $327,200 more than resident medical officers. Many consultants also run their own private practice, solo or in a group, and that is often where earnings grow.
What are the hours like for an anaesthetist?
Full-time anaesthetists average about 46 hours a week, and a theatre day usually starts before 7am with a list running into the afternoon. On-call rosters add nights and weekends for emergency caesareans and trauma.
Related roles
- Intensive Care Specialist
- General Practitioner
- Resident Medical Officer
- Intensive Care Paramedic
- Surgeon
- Rheumatologist
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