Flinders University Reports Findings in Managed Care (The changing psychiatry workforce in Australia: Still lacking in rural and remote regions): Managed Care

2024 MAR 12 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- New research on Managed Care is the subject of a report. According to news reporting from Bedford Park, Australia, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “There is a long standing and worsening shortage of psychiatrists in Australia particularly in rural areas. The majority of psychiatrists work in major cities.”

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from Flinders University, “To identify recent trends in the Australian rural psychiatrist workforce compared with the metropolitan workforce. We descriptively analysed population-level data from the National Health Workforce Data Set (NHWDS), the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). A descriptive analysis of the numbers (count) and gender of psychiatrists from 1995 to 2022 working in Australia was conducted. For the period 2013 to 2022, we analysed for rurality, gender, years’ experience, hours worked, Medicare-subsidised services provided and proportions of Specialist International Medical Graduates (SIMG) by sex, with a focus on the rural workforce. For international comparison, psychiatrist numbers were obtained for other OECD countries. The number of psychiatrists working in Australia, as per NHWDS and AIHW, was quantified. We analysed trends in demographics, hours worked and rurality of psychiatrists working in Australia in a serial cross-sectional design. Most psychiatrists are maldistributed to major cities, while outer regional and remote areas have few resident psychiatrists. Outer regional New South Wales (NSW) and South Australia (SA) have the lowest numbers of psychiatrists per capita. The full-time equivalent (FTE) of psychiatrists per 100 000 has increased from 12.6 in 2000 to 15.2 in 2022. However, the average hours worked by psychiatrists has declined. In total, available psychiatrist hours worked per 100 000 population has increased by 6.1% since the beginning of the millennium. Rural areas in NSW and SA have the greatest shortage of psychiatrists. Specialist International Medical Graduates and females (43% of the overall workforce) are the predominant workforce in rural areas. Although Medicare-subsidised services per 1000 people have increased in rural areas, they remain lower than for those living in major cities.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “There remains an acute shortage of psychiatrists in many regional and remote areas of Australia, with an increasing proportion of SIMGs and females working in these areas, in the context of future increased demand.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: The changing psychiatry workforce in Australia: Still lacking in rural and remote regions. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 2024. Australian Journal of Rural Health can be contacted at: Wiley, 111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, NJ, USA. (Wiley-Blackwell - http://www.wiley.com/; Australian Journal of Rural Health - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1440-1584)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Stephen Allison, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University, Bedford Park, South Australia, Australia. Additional authors for this research include Catherine Mary Hayter, Tarun Bastiampillai, Steve Kisely and Jeffrey C. L. Looi.

Publisher contact information for the Australian Journal of Rural Health is: Wiley, 111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, NJ, USA.

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