Cahiers de sociologie et de démographie médicales
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Cah Sociol Demogr Med · Jan 2008
Comparative StudyThe modes of physician remuneration and their effect on direct patient contact.
Initiatives such as primary care reform have allocated millions of dollars towards the Canadian health care system. The way physicians are remunerated affects the supply of physician services and as such is essential to these initiatives to facilitate policy goals. However, there exists a gap in understanding how different modes of remuneration affect physician-patient contact. ⋯ The National Physician Survey shows a significant difference between the current modes of remuneration and the preferred modes of remuneration; thus ruling out the possibility of selectivity bias. The results show that compared to the FFS FPs, the salaried FPs and blended FPs produce on average 40.46% and 23.13% less FTE respectively. It also indicates that compared to the FFS FPs, the salaried FPs and blended FPs deliver 53.54% and 31.49% fewer services on average.
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Cah Sociol Demogr Med · Jan 2008
Comparative StudyChange of the guard in obstetrics and gynaecology: projected retirement to 2025.
The purpose of the paper is to forecast retirement of the specialist obstetricians and gynaecologists in Australia to 2025. The gender and hours of work of younger and older cohorts were compared to determine the likely impacts of the transition from older to younger cohorts. The paper used the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's annual Medical Labour Force Surveys to examine trends in attrition of obstetricians and gynaecologists over the age of 45 years from the workforce and to predict their rate of retirement to 2025. ⋯ The rising proportion of women in obstetrics and gynaecology and shorter working hours of both men and women will have a compounding effect on physician retirement. The paper concludes that the changes in practice, increasing feminisation and retirement from the workforce coupled with higher female population growth in the childbearing years and slightly higher fertility mean that ensuring an adequate obstetricians and gynaecologists in Australia will be a significant challenge over the next 20 years. There is the potential for shortages in obstetric care with particular risks for rural areas.