Minimum Data Set Summary Report 2017A snapshot of the general practitioner workforce landscape in Queensland as at 30 November, 2017

HEALTH WORKFORCE QUEENSLAND

Health Workforce Queensland is a not-for-profit Rural Workforce Agency focused on making sure remote, rural and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities have access to highly skilled health professionals when and where they need them, now and into the future.

OUR VISION

To ensure optimal health workforce to enhance the health of Queensland communities.

OUR MISSION

Creating sustainable health workforce solutions that meet the needs of remote, rural and regional and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Health Workforce Queensland maintains an up-to-date database of the general practitioner workforce in remote, rural and regional Queensland that is informed by an annual survey of General Practices and General Practitioners, and a variety of other strategies.

The locations for which data have been collected are those defined under the Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC) Remoteness Areas (RA) system and covers areas from Inner Regional Queensland (RA 2) through to Very Remote Queensland (RA 5). This summary report represents a minimum, specified set of data based on a data snapshot taken on 30 November 2017.

Information generated by the minimum data set informs policy development relevant to the remote, rural and regional health workforce at local, state and national levels, and supports services for the recruitment and retention of remote, rural and regional medical professional services in Queensland. The project allows for effective monitoring of current workforce distributions and helps facilitate proactive planning for identified areas of current, or potential future areas of workforce shortage. Finally, the data allows Health Workforce Queensland to assist other institutions and organisations to research remote, rural and regional health workforce issues. This includes assisting academic institutions, local, state and federal governments, and private businesses.

Data have been collated, de-identified and then compiled into this Summary Report to represent doctors practising in a general practice environment in Queensland remote, rural and regional communities on 30 November, 2017. It should be noted that the number of doctors reported reflect stable elements of the remote, rural and regional medical workforce and do not include transient, short-term service providers (e.g. locum tenens).

1Introduction

As at 30 November 2017, there were 2,248 medical practitioners working in RA 5-2 Queensland.

SynopsisThe Northern Queensland Primary Health Network (PHN) had the largest remote, rural and regional medical workforce in the state. The average age of the workforce was 50.8 years and 44% were female, although, in very remote communities, female practitioners represented only 35% of the workforce. Practitioners reported an average 44 hours per week of medical-related work but there were increased hours from male doctors in Remote Queensland (M = 54 hours), who also worked almost 20 hours per week more than their female Remote area peers (35 hours). Female practitioners (38 hours) averaged approximately 10 hours per week less than males (48 hours). Approximately 56% of the workforce were trained in Australia and approximately 5% of practitioners were working as solo practitioners.

2 Results

Minimum Data Set 2017 | 3

4 | Health Workforce Queensland

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Central Queensland, Wide Bay and Sunshine Coast

Darling Downs andWest Moreton

Western Queensland

Northern Queensland

Inner Regional Outer Regional Remote Very Remote

Figure 1 outlines the percentage of medical practitioners in the four main remote and rural PHNs in Queensland according to ASGC-RA classifications. Northern Queensland PHN had the most medical practitioners (n = 916), the majority of whom worked in Outer Regional locations. Almost 50% of the practitioners in the Western Queensland PHN were in Very Remote locations.

Figure 1: Percent of medical practitioners by Primary Health Network and ASGC-RA classification

The primary employment type for the majority of medical practitioners was in general practice positions followed by Hospital and Health Service and Aboriginal Medical Service positions.

Table 1: Employment type by ASGC-RA

Employment Type Inner Regional Outer Regional Remote Very Remote Total

Aboriginal Medical Service 29 53 12 6 100

General Practice 1,138 738 47 23 1,946

Hospital and Health Service 20 98 13 44 175

Royal Flying Doctors Service 0 14 6 7 27

Total 1,187 903 78 80 2,248

Workforce Characteristics

Minimum Data Set 2017 | 5

The proportion of the workforce engaged in general practice positions tended to decrease with increasing remoteness, reducing from 96% in Inner Regional Queensland to 29% in Very Remote Queensland (Figure 2).

Almost 70% of Inner Regional and Outer Regional practitioners indicated that they intended to remain at their current practice for more than three years, this dropped to approximately 40% for Remote practitioners (Figure 3).

Figure 2: Percent of medical practitioners in GP roles by ASGC-RA classification

Figure 3: Intention to remain by ASGC-RA classification

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

95.87%

81.73%

60.26%

28.75%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Inner Regional Outer Regional Remote Very Remote

Perc

en

t o

f GPs

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Inner Regional Outer Regional Very RemoteRemote

< 1 year 1-3 years 5-10 years > 10 years3-5 years

Remoteness Area

6 | Health Workforce Queensland

The self-reported average total hours worked per week by Queensland RA 5-2 practitioners was 43.9 hours. For Queensland practitioners this represents a 1.2 hour reduction in the self-reported total hours since 2012 (Figure 4).

43.0

43.5

44.0

44.5

45.0

45.5

46.0

2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Ave

rag

e H

ou

rs W

ork

ed

Pe

r We

ek

Year

45.1

44.9

44.4

43.9

43.7

43.9

Figure 4: Average total hours worked per week 2012-2017

Male practitioners (M = 48.1 hours) tended to work about 10 hours per week more than female practitioners (M = 37.6). The most marked difference was between male and female practitioners in Remote RA4, where the difference was almost 20 hours per week (see, Table 2 and Figure 5).

Table 2: Average total hours per week by sex and ASGC-RA

Sex Inner Regional Outer Regional Remote Very Remote Grand Total

Female 38.14 37.09 35.22 36.61 37.55

Male 48.27 47.50 54.41 46.84 48.11

Grand Total 44.26 43.26 45.78 44.13 43.91

Minimum Data Set 2017 | 7

The average age of practitioners has increased 2.6 years since 2012 (Figure 6).

Figure 5: Mean hours per week by sex and ASGC-RA classification

34

36

38

40

42

44

46

48

50

52

54

56

Inner Regional

Male

Outer Regional Remote Very Remote Total

Me

an

Ho

urs

Pe

r We

ek

Remoteness Areas

48.27

38.1437.09

35.22

36.6137.55

47.50

54.41

46.8448.11

Female All Practitioners

46.5

47.0

47.5

48.0

48.5

49.0

49.5

50.0

50.5

51.0

48.2

47.7

49.2

2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Year

Me

an

Ag

e In

Ye

ars

49.4 49.4

50.8

Figure 6: Average age 2012-2017

8 | Health Workforce Queensland

Figure 7: Percent of female medical practitioners 2012-2017

Figure 8: Average total hours worked by gender and age group

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Perc

en

t Fe

ma

le

Year

38.8 38.8 39.1 39.1

41.6

44.1

Figure 8 displays the self-reported average total hours across age groups and gender. This indicates that for all age groupings (5-year increments), female practitioners tended to work between 8 and 12 less hours per week than their male colleagues.

Figure 7 highlights the increased percentage of female practitioners since 2012.

30

35

40

45

50

55

<30 30<35 35<40 40<45 45<50 55<6050<55 60<65 65+

Male

Me

an

Ho

urs

Pe

r We

ek

Age Group (Years)

51.38

45.27

38.30

33.93

37.1136.29 36.64

38.6240.69

39.1837.37

43.6645.30

48.46 48.12

50.92 51.38

45.56

Female

Minimum Data Set 2017 | 9

Figure 9: Sex percent by ASGC-RA classification

Female practitioners comprised just over 44% of the overall workforce but only 35% in Very Remote Queensland (Figure 9).

Figure 10: Mean hours worked per week by ASGC-RA classification

0%

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90%

100%

70%

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50%

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40%

43.4 45.7 44.9

Inner Regional Outer Regional Remote Very Remote Total

Remoteness Area

49.7

35.0 44.1

55.965.055.154.356.6

Female Male

0

50

45

40

35

30

25

20

15

5

10

44.26 43.2645.78 44.13

Inner Regional Outer Regional Remote Very Remote

Me

an

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urs

Remoteness Area

Practitioners in Remote communities tended to work more than practitioners in all other areas (Figure 10).

10 | Health Workforce Queensland

Figure 11a: Mean hours by task for Inner Regional practitioners

Figure 12: Number of medical practitioners undertaking single and multiple procedures

Figure 11b: Mean hours by task for Very Remote practitioners

0.7

1.8

3.4 37.3

0.30.1

2.3

GP Hours

Hospital Hours

Teaching/Supervision

Population Health

GP Representative

Travel

Other Tasks

GP Hours

Hospital Hours

Teaching/Supervision

Population Health

GP Representative

Travel

Other Tasks

2.01.1

0.6

1.4

2.9

23.7

13.5

0.7

1.8

3.4 37.3

0.30.1

2.3

GP Hours

Hospital Hours

Teaching/Supervision

Population Health

GP Representative

Travel

Other Tasks

GP Hours

Hospital Hours

Teaching/Supervision

Population Health

GP Representative

Travel

Other Tasks

2.01.1

0.6

1.4

2.9

23.7

13.5

The following Venn diagram (Figure 12) displays the number of practitioners that reported regular practise in the procedural skills of obstetrics, anaesthetics and surgery. Nine practitioners reported regular practise in all three procedural areas.

Obstetrics

Anaesthetics Surgery

29

22 49

814

4

9

The main difference in the types of tasks that practitioners were involved with on a weekly basis was that practitioners in Remote and Very Remote Queensland spent a greater proportion of their average weekly working hours involved in routine hospital work than Inner and Outer Regional practitioners. The two examples in Figure 11 provide the breakdown of typical tasks undertaken during the week by practitioners in Inner Regional locations and Very Remote locations.

56.2%2017

50.8

2005 2017

48.9

43.9

50 hours

45 hours

40 hours

Proportion of female practitioners working in remote, rural and regional locations has increased from 38.8% in 2012 to 44.1% in 2017.

years

38.8% 44.1%

2012 2017

DID YOU KNOW?

The average age of remote, rural and regional medical practitioners in Queensland was 50.8 years.

Since 2005, the average self-reported total hours worked by medical practitioners in remote, rural and regional Queensland has decreased by five hours, from 48.9 hours in 2005, to 43.9 hours in 2017.

The proportion of Queensland practitioners trained in Australia has increased from 50.6% in 2016 to 56.2% in 2017.

On average, female practitioners self-reported working approximately 10.5 hours per week less than male practitioners.

!

Although another 0.7% described themselves as ‘Solo co-located’ (working independently at premises shared with at least one other doctor).

Only 4.3% of medical practitioners self-reported working as a ‘Solo’ doctor.

Minimum Data Set 2017 | 11

10.5 HOURS

LESS

Solodoctor4.3%

0.7% Solo co-located

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