Medical workforce growth
January 24, 2013
AUSTRALIA is enjoying positive
growth in its medical workforce,
with improved supply across all
regions of Australia, according to a
report released today by the
Australian Institute of Health and
Welfare (AIHW).
The report, Medical workforce
2011 took into account the
demographic and employment
characteristics of medical
practitioners who were registered
in Australia in 2011.
In 2011 there were 87,790
medical practitioners registered in
Australia, 85% of which responded
to the AIHW’s Workforce survey
which was used for the report.
According to the AIHW between
2007 and 2011 the number of
medical practitioners employed in
medicine increased by just over
17% from 67,208 to 78,833, whilst
the overall supply of clinicians
across Australia increased 11.4%
from 323 full-time equivalents per
100,000 people in 2007 to 360 in
2011.
“Between 2007 and 2011, there
was also a rise in the supply of
employed medical practitioners in
all regional areas, including Major
cities up by 60 FTE, Inner regional
areas up by 60 FTE, Outer regional
areas up by 69 FTE and Remote/
Very remote areas up by 45 FTE,” a
spokesperson for the AIHW said.
The report also noted that around
94% of employed medical
practitioners were working as
clinicians, of whom 34% were
general practitioners, 33%
specialists, 17% specialists-intraining,
and 13% were hospital
non-specialists.
Meanwhile, the report also found
that of those that were employed
as non-clinicians (6% of all
employed medical practitioners),
more than half were researchers or
administrators.
The largest main speciality of
practice among both clinician
specialists and total specialists was
found to be physician, (5,157 and
5,689 respectively), whilst the
second-largest main specialty for
clinician specialists and specialists
(3,951 and 4,125 respectively) was
surgery.
“Women are increasingly
represented in the medical
practitioner workforce, up from
34% in 2007 to 38% in 2011,” the
AIHW spokesperson said.
“Among clinicians, women
accounted for 48% of hospital nonspecialists
compared to 26% of
specialists,” the spokesperson
added.
Interestingly, the report also
found that the average age of
medical practitioners has fallen
slightly from 2007 to 2011, from
45.9 to 45.5 years, whilst the
average weekly hours worked by
employed medical practitioners
remained stable between 2007 and
2011.
“ In 2011, male medical
practitioners worked an average of
45.9 hours per week, while female
medical practitioners worked an
average of 38.7 hours per week,”
the AIHW said.
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