Surgical workforce in New Zealand: characteristics, activities and limitations

Planning the future surgical workforce is a vitally important activity in which the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons is actively engaged. This paper reports on a survey, undertaken in late 2005, of all vocationally registered New Zealand surgeons. It describes their age and gender distribution, their workload, the distribution of their work hours and limitations on their activities. It is hoped that this will contribute to planning of surgical services for the future. Of surgeons surveyed, 452 (73%) responded. Their mean age was 51 years and 7% were female. Recruitment has been stable at approximately 20 per year since 1990. New Zealand surgeons worked, on average, 48 h per week and could accommodate additional work. Seventy-seven per cent of surgeons took after-hours calls and reported a 55% chance of returning to the hospital each week (30% in the main population centres and 70% in other districts). Overall, surgeons spent 50% of their clinical time in private practice. Most surgeons experienced significant resource constraints in providing surgical care. The current workload of surgeons in New Zealand is acceptable but after-hours duties, especially in secondary hospitals, may be unattractive. Surgical services are currently limited by institutional resources. If there is a substantial increase in the need for surgery in the future, surgical recruitment, which has been stable, should be increased.