Volume 185 - Issue 3
More doctors, but not enough: Australian medical workforce supply 2001–2012
Author: Peter C Arnold
Med J Aust 2006; 185 (3): 182. || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2006.tb00520.x
Published online: 7 August 2006
Published online: 7 August 2006
To the Editor: Where is the evidence for the claim by Joyce, McNeil and Stoelwinder1 that there was a boom in medical workforce supply in the 1970s?
They are perpetuating the accepted macroeconomic myth of there having been a surplus at that time. The microeconomic, marketplace truth was that there was a shortage of general practitioners throughout the 1970s.2 This was so severe that, after battling for some years after 1974 to find a partner for my suburban Sydney practice, I resorted to advertising overseas, finally importing an overseas-trained graduate.
It is time for this myth to be laid to rest. There has been a marketplace shortage of GPs since the early 1970s.
The truth is that federal governments have baulked at the expansion of payments through Medibank/Medicare. Rather than apply any controls on demand, they have obstinately rationed supply, repeatedly citing dubious statistics and invalid international comparisons to justify a diminution in the supply of GPs.
References
- Joyce CM, McNeil JJ, Stoelwinder JU. More doctors, but not enough: Australian medical workforce supply 2001–2012. Med J Aust 2006; 184: 441-446.
- Arnold PC. The ageing GP. Quadrant 1977; XXI: 8-9. 0_i1091777