Baby boomers taking over the GP’s time

Australian general practitioners (GPs) are now spending less time with younger patients aged 45 and under, and more time with “baby boomers” ( 45-64) and people over 75.

A recent report, General Practice activity in Australia, 2005-06, covered over 100,000 GP-patient encounters carried out by 1,017 doctors and also showed that feminisation and ageing of GPs was continuing with 37% being women and 40% of GPs being over 55.

Detailed data on practice nurses also showed that they were actively involved in almost 4% of all patient encounters and that they were mainly involved in immunisation (30.2%) treatment for chronic skin ulcers (6.7%) and lacerations (6.3%).

Between 1998 and 2004-05, there was a steady increase in the rate of clinical treatments with advice, education and counselling given by GPs on topics such as medication, nutrition and weight, and treatments.

However, in 2005-06 these clinical treatments, given by either the GP or the practice nurse, decreased by 20% in a single year. This result suggests there were about 10 million fewer clinical treatments given across the country at patient consultations than in the previous year. There was no change in the rate of GP psychological counselling – a service that cannot be provided by a practice nurse.