AMA President, Dr Bill Glasson, said today that the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) Report on the Medical Labour Force 2001 confirms the AMA view that there are not enough doctors to meet increasing patient care demands in Australia.

Dr Glasson said the report throws out the challenge to the Government and the Opposition to address medical workforce issues as the core of their health policies to ensure access and affordability of health services for all Australians into the future.

"As the level of chronic illness that comes with an ageing population increases the access to basic primary health care services is diminishing," Dr Glasson said.

"Australia's medical workforce shortage is exacerbated by the declining participation rate of many doctors.

"There is a significant change in the demographic of the medical workforce, highlighted by more women and more part-timers."

Key findings of the AIHW report that mirror AMA research include:

• The number of students going into medicine is increasing, but when they become part of the medical workforce they tend to work fewer hours than previous generations of doctors
• Over half of the medical school intake is female and almost 60 percent of students going into general practice are female
• Younger GPs tend to work part time to a much greater extent than older doctors
• Male GPs in their 50s tend to work around 60 hours a week
• Younger GPs tend to work about 30-35 hours a week leaving them time to meet commitments outside work.

Dr Glasson said there are about 25,000 GPs in Australia, which equates to just 16,700 Full Time Equivalent GPs.

"This is putting an enormous strain on the system.  To train one full time equivalent GP, you have to train 1.6 students.

"We need measures to retain older medical practitioners in the workforce to help ease the immediate crisis while more doctors are being trained.

"While the number of available full time equivalent doctors is decreasing, the demand for medical services is increasing.

"The increased demand is due to the ageing population, increasing technology and a tendency toward more preventive medicine.

"Most medical services are provided in the last few years of your life, so an ageing population places significant increases on the demand for services.

"The AMA welcomes the AIHW report as further evidence of the medical workforce shortages hitting towns and suburbs all over Australia.

"This is yet another wake-up call to our policy makers to produce workable policies that will provide a highly qualified medical workforce for this and future generations of Australians," Dr Glasson said.

CONTACT:         Judith Tokley             (02) 6270 5471 / (0408) 824 306