GPs are valued but we need more
AMA President, Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, today welcomed AMWAC's General Practice Workforce Report released late yesterday, which vindicates the AMA's long-held concerns about chronic GP workforce shortages.
Dr Haikerwal said the Report highlights the importance of GPs in Australia's medical workforce and the urgency of addressing the shortage.
"Clearly we have to recruit more doctors, including overseas trained doctors. But more significantly we need to retain and look after the doctors we've already got," Dr Haikerwal said.
"Despite more training places, we will have fewer full time equivalent GPs as new graduates join the workforce.
"Younger GPs are more likely to work a 40-45 hour week, or part-time, not the 60 or 70 hours worked by previous generations of GPs who are now starting to retire. These concerns must be taken into account in Government planning.
"Previous AMWAC research has failed to identify the GP shortage. This failure has led to ill informed and poor Government policy.
"The AMA has been warning of a shortage for over ten years, commissioning an Access Economics Report which confirmed the concerns.
"The AMWAC Report has found that 25 per cent of the medical workforce is made up of international medical graduates. This reinforces the need for appropriate assessment, mentoring and support programs for our overseas trained doctors to ensure that they are retained and sustained within the system.
"GPs are responding to workforce pressures by engaging in more team-based care, but primary care teams must be led by GPs who would take ultimate responsibility for patient care.
"The Report found that patients generally have increasingly chronic and complex needs. It also acknowledges the need for GPs to provide services in nursing homes or other aged care facilities.
"Provision of these time consuming services is a poor business choice.
"GPs make a major contribution to cost effective, quality health care in this country," Dr Haikerwal said.