The report, ‘Special treatment: Improving Australians’ access to specialist care’ was published by the Grattan Institute on 15 June. The report’s authors state that, according to Department of Health and Aged Care estimates, the number of emergency medicine specialists are ‘over-supplied’.
It is important to note that the data quoted in the report is from 2017. As such, it is not an accurate reflection of the current situation, with widespread EM workforce shortages found across Australia.
More recent data has shown that EM specialists are in fact not in oversupply. On the contrary, every state and territory in Australia has emergency specialist vacancies that cannot be filled and most EDs also have vacancies for trainees.
“It is a grave misconception that there is an oversupply of emergency medicine specialists in Australia,” ACEM President Dr Stephen Gourley said. “There is in fact an undersupply.
“Recent data, as well as experience on the ground in metropolitan, regional, rural and remote EDs across the country, points to severe workforce shortages.
“To meet current and future needs, it is essential that funded training for fully accredited specialists continues to keep pace with demands.”
ACEM is the peak body for emergency medicine in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, and ACEM-accredited EDs are responsible for training emergency physicians. In January the College published its State of Emergency report, with data sourced from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) 2021-2022 database and ACEM’s 2022 Annual Site Census.
The State of Emergency report showed that across Australia:
- 47 per cent of EDs reported EM specialist vacancies in major cities and 78 per cent in regional and remote areas.
- 12 per cent of EDs employed locum EM specialists in major cities and 51 per cent in regional and remote areas.
Similarly, the 2023 Kruk Report identified medical practitioner shortages in Australia, including in emergency medicine in NSW, SA, WA and Tasmania. The report’s authors stated: “Workforce shortages contribute to reduced access to care, increased workloads for health practitioners, overuse of higher cost services (such as locums and emergency care) and poorer patient outcomes.”
Further adverse impacts mentioned in the Kruk report include:
- Longer wait times put more pressure on emergency care services and increase the incidence of chronic conditions that could have been prevented with regular screening or managed with earlier primary care interventions.
- Wait time is a well-known contributor to poor patient health outcomes. In terms of ED presentations, 33 per cent of people were not seen on time.
“Our EDs are busier than ever before,” Dr Gourley said. “There were over 9 million presentations in 2023-24, the highest ever recorded. People are spending longer in the ED and arriving with more complex presentations.
“Workforce shortages, particularly in regional and rural settings, are a long-standing issue that impact upon the availability of healthcare services. ACEM is committed to working with government and health sector leaders to implement sustainable solutions to the health workforce crisis.
“We need to retain and support the growth of the emergency medicine workforce to ensure a safe, robust and equitable healthcare system for all Australians.”
Background:
ACEM is the peak body for emergency medicine in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, responsible for training emergency physicians and advancement of professional standards. www.acem.org.au
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Helen Johnson, Manager, Media Relations [email protected] +61 427 621 857
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