Physician assistants in Australia.

Abstract

[Extract] Physician assistants (PAs) are making inroads in Australia. Medical extension is an idea whose time has finally come. As the familiar demand-side triad of population aging, wants, and technology collides with workforce and financial constraint, change for Australia will be a necessity, not an option. With 3.3 physicians for every 1,000 of its population, Australia actually has quite a reasonable supply of doctors. In comparison, the United States has 2.5 per 1,000, Canada 2.4, and the United Kingdom 2.8.1 The real reasons for the equally real shortages of physicians are the problems of urban concentration, the imbalance between clinical generalists and subspecialists, and tasks being performed by physicians that might be more efficiently done by others.