Australian doctors are working less - but there are more of them

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) while the number of medical practitioners rose between 2002 and 2006, the supply of primary care doctors fell.

The AIHW report says the overall supply of medical practitioners in Australia rose between 2002 and 2006, but the primary care doctor supply fell and the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) medical practitioners for every 100,000 people increased from 271 to 290 largely due to an overall increase in numbers.

This equates to an increase from around 54,000 to 62,500 medical practitioners, which the AIHW report says more than compensates for a slight reduction in the average working hours from 44 to 43 hours a week.

Most primary care practitioners are GPs and the supply fell from 101 to 97 FTE per 100,000 population over the same 2002-2006 period, and even though the number rose it was not enough to compensate for the reduction in average working hours in the profession.

According to David Braddock, Head of the Institute's Labour Force Unit, over 93% of the estimated 62,500 medical practitioners working in Australia in 2006 were clinicians, providing patient care, while others worked in areas such as administration, research and teaching.

About 40% of clinicians were primary care practitioners and another 35% were specialists - the remainder were specialists-in-training, hospital non-specialists and other types of clinicians.

Mr Braddock says most notably, the supply of specialists in training rose between 2002 and 2006, from 31 to 41 FTE per 100,000 population.

The major cities benefited the most with the largest supply of medical practitioners (at 332 FTE per 100,000) followed by inner regional areas (at 184) and outer regional areas at 154 FTE.

The report says in contrast, the variation in supply of primary care practitioners was smaller across major cities, and inner and outer regional areas at 98, 87 and 86 FTE respectively.