Half of GPs plan to retire in 10 years: Survey

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Nearly half of the country's GP's intend to retire within the next decade, a Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners survey has found.

The 2018 Workforce Survey specifically looked at how the sector could encourage older GPs to delay retirement and how part-time GPs could increase their working hours.

"Forty seven per cent of our existing GP workforce intends to retire within the next 10 years, which is a big concern," said college president Dr Samantha Murton. "Even more so, is the 27 per cent who plan on retiring within five years. Many of those GPs have already started reducing their work hours.

"To find out how we might be able to stem this tide, we collected data on topics we've never previously researched. Until now, we've never had this type of data at a national level."

She said longer and more frequent holidays, longer appointment times and fewer patients might keep GPs in the profession.

Murton said the college found that the number one influence on GPs' part-time hours was the age of their children, followed by pay and stress.

"Female GPs out-number males, but they also account for the majority of our part-time GPs," she said.

"Half of our part-timers are under 50 years of age, so it's more likely these are working mothers and fathers who juggle childcare as well as patient care," she says.

"The age of their children, the cost of childcare, and their ability to successfully combine work and parenthood are all notable and obvious influencers."