More doctors, but most are still in cities

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Website: http://www.6minutes.com.au/dirplus/images/6minutes/newspluspharma/19_10_2010.pdf

Date posted: 20.10.10

As quoted from 6minutes.com.au

By Michael Woodhead.

Australia has seen a 20% increase in the number of medical practitioners, but most are still in urban practices, a new workforce survey shows.

According to an AIHW report, the number of medical practitioners in Australia rose from 59,000 to 70,400 between 2004 and 2008.

During that time doctors decreased their weekly working hours from an average of 44 to 42.7 hours, but despite this the overall supply of employed medical practitioners increased from 318 to 341 full-time equivalents (FTE) per 100,000 population.

Rural areas continued to have much lower numbers of doctors, with less than 200 FTE per 100,000 population in rural and inner regional areas compared to 376 FTE in major cities. Rural doctors worked around three hours longer per week than urban doctors.

The report also shows there are still more than 3000 solo GP practices, compared to almost 12,000 practices with five or more partners. GPs in solo practices or with one partner worked around 41 hours per week, whereas GPs in practices with five partners worked an average of 37 hours a week. Of the 24,000 GPs in Australia,
20,334 were vocationally registered, 1645 were trainees and more than 2000 were “other”.

The proportion of women in the medical workforce increased, accounting for 35% of employed practitioners in 2008, up from 32.4% in 2004.

 


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Last modified: December 6, 2010 8:58 PM

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