Doctor supply in Australia: rural - urban imbalances and regulated supply

Abstract

We review the debate on the supply of doctors in Australia from an economic perspective. We focus on the supply between urban and rural areas and on Australia’s reliance on foreign-born overseas-trained doctors. Documented evidence shows that doctors are concentrated in cities and rural Australians have relatively poor access; and there is heavy reliance on the recruitment of foreign doctors. We suggest that besides training more local doctors, policy-making should include innovations to resolve the supply imbalance such as physician assistants and community pharmacy care in areas where access to general practitioners is often limited.