Data and statistics

What does the GP and rural hospital doctor workforce look like in Aotearoa?

• The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners is Aotearoa’s largest medical college, with a membership of more than 5,728 GPs.

Demographics

• 58 percent of respondents identify as female.
• 2 percent are Pacific peoples; 3 percent identify as Middle Eastern, Latin, or African; 5 percent are Māori; 20 percent identify as Asian; and 69 percent are European (Pākehā).

Where and how GPs work

• 64 percent work in GP-owned practices.
• 51 percent of GPs work full-time, 49 percent work part-time.
• 31 percent of rural hospital doctors have after-hours commitments.
• The most commonly used technologies for engaging with patients were telephone call (98 percent), SMS messaging (93 percent), and email (87 percent)

Where they train

• 38 percent of GPs are international medical graduates and 62 percent got their first medical degree in Aotearoa.
• International medical graduates are mainly from the United Kingdom, followed by South Africa, India, and Australia.
• 48 percent of rural hospital doctors got their first medical degree overseas.

Workforce Survey

Many of the statistics above come from the College’s Workforce Survey, which is run every two years. This survey helps the College to plan and advocate for its members in useful and meaningful ways.

• 37 percent of GPs intend to retire in the next five years, and 55 percent plan to retire in the next 10 years.
• 31 percent rate themselves as unlikely to recommend a career in general practice.

Burnout

• 79 percent rate themselves as burnt-out to some degree.
• 48 percent of GPs rate themselves as high on the burnout scale.
• Practice owners and partners are more likely to state they are at the high end of the burnout scale.

Following anecdotal member feedback and early results from the 2020 Workforce Survey about burnout levels the College President, Dr Samantha Murton, asked management to survey members to help identify the factors contributing to member burnout. An anonymous survey was run during the last two weeks of November 2020. In total, 1495 responses were received, which included 809 verbatim comments.

Analysis of these results identified three core themes contributing to member burnout:

1. increased patient need and complexity
2. structure of the funding formula
3. administrative burden.