The RACGP says it has started paying refunds to the 1400 candidates hit by last Friday’s IT meltdown during one of its high-stakes fellowship exams.

Following an emergency board meeting yesterday, it also announced it will hold resit exams later this year for the  aborted Key Feature Problem exam as well as the Applied Knowledge Test, which was due to take place the following day.

Dates have yet to be set and the exact exam format and whether candidates will sit the exam at home or in dedicated test centres has not been made clear.

The college stressed there will be no cost to candidates to resit the exams within the next 18 months and a failed resit will not count as an exam attempt.