Concerns for our ageing medical workforce
The medical practitioner workforce is ageing, according to the Medical labour force 2007 report released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).
The report also showed that the number of employed medical practitioners in Australia increased by almost 20% from 56,207 in 2003 to 67,208 in 2007.
The vast majority of these practitioners (over 90%) mainly worked in direct patient care, and of these, close to 40% were primary care practitioners, mostly GPs.
The report, found that women continued to gain ground in the workforce with females making up 34% of employed medical practitioners in 2007 compared to 32% in 2003.
The proportion of women in the medical labour force aged 55–74 years increased while the proportion of women aged less than 45 years decreased, suggesting that the increasing numbers of young women joining the medical practitioner workforce over recent decades have stayed in the workforce, and statistically, have moved into older age groups.
The age profile for male practitioners changed very little during the same period.
The report showed medical practitioners worked a slightly shorter week in 2007 – an average of 43 hours a week, compared with slightly more than 44 hours in 2003.
A second report released by the AIHW, Nursing and midwifery labour force 2007, showed the number of nurses increased by over 11% between 2003 and 2007, and also with an ageing workforce.
From 2003 to 2007 the proportion of nurses aged 50 years and over increased from 28% to 33%.
The average weekly hours worked by nurses, unlike for medical practitioners, rose over the 2003–2007 period. Nurses worked 33.3 hours in 2007 compared to 32.5 hours in 2003.
The proportion of nurses working part-time (less than 35 hours per week) fell from 50% to 48%. The number of full time equivalent nurses per 100,000 people increased from 1,017 in 2003 to 1,095 in 2007, this was an 8% increase.
