Have you noticed you can't get an appointment with your GP within a few days these days? A big part of the reason is the plain fact that Australia's population is ageing., with more than 16 per cent of the total population now 65 or older. Predictions are that this figure will rise to 23 per cent by 2066. As a result, there's increasing demand on general practitioners to manage large numbers of patients with multiple complex chronic diseases related to age. And, at the same time, for a variety of reasons, we have a shrinking GP workforce. The solution could be what is common overseas - using primary care nurses to do basic tasks now done by doctors.
Professor Marie Gerdtz, Head of the Department of Nursing at the University of Melbourne and Tracy Murphy, Post Grad Nursing coordinator also at Melbourne University have been looking into the practicalities of the idea of allowing primary care nurses a greater role in taking pressure off GPs and discuss the issue with Philip Clark on Nightlife Health.
In this episode