Professor Tom Brett, General Practice and Primary Health Care Research Unit, School of Medicine, University of Notre Dame Funding: Supported by the PHCRED Strategy

The work intentions of newly emerging GPs and their senior colleagues have significant implications for patient access to primary care and ongoing health workforce pressures. Eighty per cent of Australians see their GP at least once a year. Attracting and retaining GPs in practice is crucial to meeting ongoing demands placed on primary care services by challenges such as an ageing population and chronic disease burdens.

With overseas studies reporting early retirement trends among GPs, a Western Australian collaboration of GPs, educators, and researchers conducted two studies of the work intentions of local GP registrars and GPs aged 45 to 65 years.

The first study revealed more than half of local senior GPs were considering early retirement or a career change. With one-quarter of Australian doctors aged over 55 years, such premature losses would seriously destabilise the current GP supply that underpins our primary health system. By asking GPs to explain their work intentions, the researchers identified obstacles to remaining in the workforce – such as loss of job satisfaction, increasing bureaucracy, and excessive workloads – which could be alleviated by health workforce and financing policy reforms.

The second study pinpointed both positive influences and obstacles for young doctors choosing general practice as a future career, including the attraction of career flexibility and lifestyle factors and the disincentive of excessive workloads and poor job satisfaction and remuneration.

This body of research has provided vital information to policy makers about Australian GP workforce challenges and potential strategies to remedy workforce shortages.