Media releases
It’s official – GPs workload increasingly complex
2 December 2009
Australian general practitioners are increasingly involved in the long-term care of more patients with complex multiple medical problems, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) reports, General practice activity in Australian 2008-09 and 10 year data tables, released today.
“The majority of Australians' health services are provided by GPs so the information revealed in these reports point towards long-term trends in healthcare for all Australians,” said Dr Chris Mitchell, President of the RACGP.
Using the results of over 1 million encounters between doctors and their patients, the data, collected annually for the BEACH research program, identifies ten years of changes in general practitioners, their practices and their patients.
“The report estimates that GPs managed around 25 million more problems in Australia in 2008-09 than in 1990-00. Evidence of an ageing population and an increase in the number of patients requiring care for long term (chronic) disease means that a GP's workload is only going to increase over time,” said Dr Mitchell.
“In addition, the number of hours available for people to see their GPs is potentially shrinking as our GP workforce ages; the average age of GPs is now over 50. This must be addressed through better recognition of the work of GPs. We urgently need to increase the number of doctors working in general practice and before they retire we need to harness their skills to train the next generation. Since 2000, GP supply has fallen by 2%.
“The number of general practice training places must increase by a minimum of 100 every year in order to reach the year 2015 target of 1,500 places.
“While the continued development of multidisciplinary care teams is also essential in the management of this increasing clinical workload, GPs must remain as the front line of primary health care offering whole person, comprehensive and coordinated care to the community,” Dr Mitchell concluded.
View the full report at www.aihw.gov.au/publications/index.cfm/title/11013.