AIHW medical workforce data out of date - AMA
Embargo: 1.00am, Friday 21 February 2003
AMA President, Dr Kerryn Phelps, said today that the latest AIHW medical workforce figures are out of date and do not reflect the very real doctor shortage crisis affecting towns and suburbs across Australia.
Dr Phelps said the AIHW doctor numbers are four years old and should only be used as benchmarking to quantify the magnitude of today's doctor shortages.
The AIHW released a supplementary statement pointing out that there was an actual decrease in the number of full time equivalent practitioners between 1995 and 1999 - a trend that accelerated over the period resulting in today's shortages.
"The fact is that Australia does not have enough doctors," Dr Phelps said.
"The problem is not simply about the number of doctors registered in Australia, it is more to do with what these doctors are doing with their time.
"For a whole range of reasons, there is less face-to-face consultation time.
"Today we are training too few doctors and the gloss has gone off medicine as a career.
"After ten or more years of training, doctors are graduating into a profession with high practice costs, high medical indemnity costs and mountains of red tape.
"The desire to practise medicine is being swamped by bureaucracy.
"Older doctors - many in country towns - are retiring earlier but there are no doctors queuing up to replace them. As a result, whole communities are losing their GPs and the basic health care that other Australians take for granted.
"Another disturbing trend is the high number of Australian doctors moving overseas, either to further their studies or to escape the high costs and invasive bureaucracy that is cruelling medicine in Australia. Accurate data of when and if these doctors return is not available.
"As it stands, female GPs and younger male GPs are just not prepared to commit to a working life of more than 60 hours a week. The attitudes to work and family of the people entering general practice today are different from those who entered the profession 20-30 years ago.
"The Government must address the doctor shortage issue as a matter of urgency before more towns and suburbs and regions lose their traditional family doctors," Dr Phelps said.
CONTACT: John Flannery (02) 6270 5477 / (0419) 494 761