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More doctors, but not enough: Australian medical workforce supply 2001–2012

Catherine M Joyce, John J McNeil and Johannes U Stoelwinder
Med J Aust 2006; 185 (3): . || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2006.tb00521.x
Published online: 7 August 2006

In reply: Our reference to a boom in medical workforce supply during the 1970s was based on the marked increase in medical workforce entries in that decade. The number of Australian medical graduates rose from 851 in 1970 to 1278 in 1980.1,2 In contrast — and as a result of a shift to a policy of constraint — graduate numbers remained quite static during the 1980s and 1990s, at around 1200–1300 per year (Commonwealth Department of Education, Science and Training custom datasets RFI 03-312, RFI 04-360, 2004).


  • Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC.



  • 1. Karmel P (Chairman). Report of the Committee on Medical Schools to the Australian Universities Commission. Expansion of medical education. (Parliamentary Paper No. 110.) Canberra: AGPS, 1973.<eMJA full text>
  • 2. Doherty RL (Chairman). Committee of Inquiry into Medical Education and the Medical Workforce. Australian medical education and workforce into the 21st century. Canberra: AGPS, 1988.

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