- © 2004 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors
Family physicians who were under the age of 45 in 2003 provided, on average, 8.8 fewer hours of direct patient care each week than physicians of the same age group in 1982. According to the CMA Physician Resource Questionnaire (PRQ) results, this represents a 21% decrease.
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The 45–54 age group provided 3.8 fewer hours by 2003. In contrast, those 55–64 and 65 and over spent 0.4 and 4.7 more hours respectively per week on direct patient care in 2003 than they did 2 decades earlier. (See CMAJ 2002;166[11]:1407-11.)
The difference between age groups in hours worked has shrunk in recent years. In 1982, the gap between the age group working the longest hours (< 45) and those working the least (65+) was 14 hours per week. The difference now is only 4.7 hours per week.
It should be noted that direct patient care alone does not reflect the total workload of physicians, which includes on-call responsibilities, other patient- related activities such as completing forms, charting and phone calls, and committee work, research, teaching and administration.
The PRQ was mailed to a random sample of 7922 doctors, and the response rate was 28.4%. National results are accurate to within ± 2.1%, 19 times out of 20. — Lynda Buske, Associate Director of Research, CMA