Doctors with difficulties: why so few women?

Area of Science:

• Medical workforce analysis
• Gender studies in healthcare
• Professional regulation

Background:

• The National Clinical Assessment Service (NCAS) assesses doctors and dentists facing performance issues.
• NCAS data from its first four years revealed a significant gender disparity in referrals.
• Women are under-represented in NCAS referrals relative to their proportion in the medical workforce.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the reasons behind the higher referral rates of male doctors to the NCAS.
• To contribute to discussions on medical performance issues and the economic implications of a growing female physician population.
• To analyze gender differences in factors contributing to doctor-patient relationships and disciplinary actions.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of NCAS referral data over its first four years.
• Review of existing literature on gender differences in professional disciplinary organizations globally.
• Examination of gender-specific attributes relevant to doctor-patient relationships and addiction-related disciplinary actions.

Main Results:

• Male doctors are referred to NCAS considerably more often than female doctors across all specialties.
• Women are proportionally under-represented in NCAS referrals, even in specialties where they form a larger part of the workforce.
• Evidence suggests women may excel in non-technical doctor-patient relationship attributes and face fewer addiction-related disciplines.

Conclusions:

• The consistent over-representation of men in disciplinary organizations globally warrants further investigation.
• Employer leniency towards female doctors as a cause for referral disparity lacks evidence and requires primary research.
• Economic analyses of employing more female doctors must consider the higher costs associated with male doctors' litigation, discipline, and retraining.