THE MEDICAL manpower crisis is even worse than previously estimated, with patients almost certain to experience difficulty accessing GP services, new research has shown.
Researchers from the department of primary care and public health at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) have found that women GPs are only half as likely to work full-time at partnership level as male doctors.
This means that the imminent manpower crisis, the result of a surge in the number of family doctors reaching retirement age in the next five years, will be twice as bad as previously estimated.
Prof Fergus O'Kelly, clinical professor of general practice, and his TCD colleagues, surveyed all doctors who had graduated from GP training schemes in the Republic between 1997 and 2003. They found that, although 70 per cent of GP graduates are female, almost twice as many males as females work at a senior partnership level in Irish general practice. And despite the overall gender balance in favour of female doctors, just 29 per cent of women GPs are working full-time.
Female doctors also worked fewer unsociable hours, with 51 per cent of female graduates involved in co- operatives and out-of-hours work, compared with 84 per cent of male doctors who worked nights and weekends.
Commenting on their findings, the authors say: "The 1997-2003 cohort inevitably reflects the greater family commitments of females, as women (in the study) who have not taken maternity leave have broadly similar working patterns to males."
A previous study by the same research team indicated a surge in the number of GPs retiring in the next five years. "These will be mostly males, who are currently working full-time. Our data show that current graduates are much less likely to work in full-time clinical practice, which will lead to a significant shortfall in the actual sessions available for patient consultation," the authors say.
Prof Tom O'Dowd, co-author of the study with Dr Aisling Ní Shuilleabháin and Mr Mark O'Kelly, said: "The feminisation of general practice reflects the pattern of entry into medical schools. It suggests a threat to the sort of personalised care that allows patients see the same GP for ongoing problems for many years."
But a senior medical source described the study as "a severe wake-up call. Clearly we have got the balance wrong gender-wise. We must now rectify this because political correctness will not look after patients."