The retirement of 'baby boomer' doctors and nurses will place unprecedented pressure on Australia's medical workforce in the next 20 years, according to a study by two University of Sydney researchers.
In their paper published in the current issue of the Medical Journal of Australia, John Beard and Deborah Schofield suggest governments should consider offering incentives to ageing health care workers.
Professor John Beard and Associate Professor Deborah Schofield, at the Northern Rivers University Department of Rural Health, University of Sydney (part of the Australian Rural Health Collaboration), say policies and incentives to encourage ongoing employment among older clinicians, albeit at reduced hours, are crucial if the Australian health workforce is to adequately meet the growing community demand of the 21st century.
The authors used previously unpublished data from the past four Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Census surveys (1986, 1991, 1996, 2001) to examine trends in the work and retirement patterns of GPs, medical specialists and registered nurses.
Results show the age profile of the medical and nursing workforce has aged since 1986, with the baby boomer generation making up more than half that workforce in 2001.
A large proportion of GPs continued to work beyond the traditional retirement age of 65 years, with nurses retiring at a younger age than doctors.
All groups of GPs worked fewer hours in 2001 than they did in 1986, with generation X GPs working fewer hours than the baby boomers did at the same age.