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‘The data was distressing’: Study highlights pressures on female GPs
Women are leaving the profession early, partly due to the consequences of current policy settings, research finds.
Rebuilding trust and reviewing the gender impact of primary care policies are required to stop female GPs leaving the profession, new research has found.
Many female GPs see themselves as ‘disposable’, undervalued, and the widening gender pay gap ‘intolerable’, according to alarming new research.
It also suggests Australia’s current policy settings are causing them to leave the profession or drastically reduce their hours.
Published this month, the study examined the experiences of 770 female GPs, including recent retirees or those who plan to retire within five years, and those who have cut their clinical work by at least 50%, or plan to do so.
More than half of those GPs involved had left or were leaving general practice within their first 15 years.
‘Participants described deep emotional wounds, sustained from leaving the profession they still claim to “love”,’ the authors conclude.
‘There was a sense of sorrow and loss, not only for themselves, but also for the profession.
‘These women saw themselves as an “underclass”, doing the “invisible emotional labour” of the profession for a “fraction of the remuneration”.
‘They felt “used, exploited and undervalued”.
‘They still loved the role but found it impossible to sustain.’
Participants also referenced the ‘financial abuse’ of Medicare, and its ‘entrenched gender inequity’.
‘Public expectations around bulk billing, fed by political narratives from government, were mentioned as a key impediment to practice,’ the authors wrote.
‘The treatment of GPs in the pandemic was mentioned frequently. GPs felt disrespected, unprotected and deeply unsafe.
‘It was a key turning point for many deciding to leave.’
The authors, who include Professor Louise Stone and former RACGP President Professor Karen Price, are now urging policymakers to pay more attention to retaining existing female GPs.
For Professor Stone, the uptake of the survey was unexpected. She said that a deliberate decision was made with co-authors to directly reflect the experiences collated.
‘I had a choice that I could have put this in dry academic language, but that would not have been true to the data,’ she told newsGP.
‘The data was distressing.
‘We weren’t expecting a survey of this size. We had 25,000 words of free text. That never happens so obviously there’s a groundswell and I’ve heard from so many people since then.’
The authors conclude that while female GPs ‘value the purpose and meaning of their role … a decline in their physical, mental, financial, and occupational wellbeing is driving them to leave the profession early’.
‘Rebuilding trust, addressing wellbeing concerns, and reviewing the gender impact of primary care policies are required to reverse this trend,’ they write.
They warn that with female GPs doing more mental health and women’s health consultations than male colleagues, there will be fewer of those services available as female GPs move away from clinical general practice.
‘We’re not going to re-educate the community that if Doctor Jane leaves, Doctor John will be able to step into their shoes and do the same sort of practice, because the community has prejudices,’ Professor Stone said.
‘That’s the way it works.’
The research, which was funded by an Australian General Practice Research Foundation 2024 GP Wellbeing Grant, echoed findings in the RACGP’s Health of the Nation that many female GPs are more likely to do longer consultations and earn less.
For Professor Stone, the recent changes in policy mean the gender pay gap will inevitably widen, with authors stating that the Medicare Benefits Schedule ‘needs to value short and long consultations equally’.
‘I have no feeling that the Government went out to attack women doctors,’ she said.
‘That’s just silly, but I think this voice has not yet been heard.
‘It’s my hope that now we would be able to present this part of general practice that has not been seen clearly and that could then inform the way public policy is enacted.
‘That wouldn’t be difficult, it’s very basic.
‘We could start by just assuming that a minute of my time is worth a minute of someone who is doing a flu vaccine.’
Patients with conditions that are hard to diagnose and treat are likely to be negatively affected too, she says.
‘Moving to quicker, sharper medicine and even multidisciplinary care… the group it doesn’t ever touch are the complex ones where there is no solution,’ she said.
‘Six percent of our patients used to have rare diseases, I’m sure it’s much higher now.
‘There are a lot of our patients who will never get a diagnosis that need to be managed very carefully, and that group is not served, in fact is served less, by current policy.’
A second part to the study will use interviews to explore findings from this study in more depth.
GPs interested in the research, including those who would like to be involved, can contact Professor Stone on louise.stone@adelaide.edu.au.
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