Women will become the majority of doctors within ten years presenting current challenges for workforce planning, Royal College of Physicians’ research shows.
The RCP’s two-year review, examining the changing gender balance in medicine, reveals that women are more likely to work part-time and focus on particular specialties.
A 15-year follow up of doctors after graduation suggests that, on average, taking into account career breaks and part-time working, women prove 60% of a full time equivalent doctor against 80% for men.
Women also prefer specialist fields that offer more predictable working hours and a relatively greater amount of patient interaction.
Women currently make up 40% of all doctors, representing 42% of GPs and 28% of consultants. On present trends, women will make up the majority of GPs by 2013 and the majority of the medical work force some time after 2017.
However, only 8% of consultant surgeons are women.
While women already account for 47% of UK-trained consultants aged 30 to 34, there are also very few women doctors on NHS trust boards as medical directors. In 2006, none of the six medical schools had female professors and just two of 34 medical school deans were women.
Professor Jane Dacre, chair of the working group, said: “This research has shown that women doctors will soon be in the majority and are now reaching consultant status in greater numbers. It is likely to lead to an increase in part-time working. Also, women on average make different specialty choices from men.
“The combination of these changes in the medical workforce will need to be examined to ensure the continued delivery of high quality care, and the best use of the considerable talent available in today’s medical profession.”
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