Women doctors and their careers: what now?: Women contribute less than men to non-clinical care as general practitioners in Scotland

doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7518.696-a

BMJ 2005;331:696-697 (24 September), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7518.696-a

Letter

Women doctors and their careers: what now?

Women contribute less than men to non-clinical care as general practitioners in Scotland

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Allen is rightly optimistic about women's currentand future contribution to medicine.¹ She also rightly emphasisesthe combined impact of the feminisation of general practiceand part time working, which has implications not only for thedelivery of services but also for the development of the specialty.

The problem is probably worse than she portrays because thecommon definition of full time (> 26 h/week) is usually derivedfrom government figures based on previous contract status. Weconducted an anonymous survey in Scotland of all general practiceprincipals and non-principals (now all called performers) inthe summer of 2004 about current in-hours workload and anticipatedworkload over the next five years (response rate for principals67.2% (2541/3783) and 65.2% (749/1149) for non-principals).

We found that women under 40 outnumber men in general practice,outnumbering them in all age groups in the Lothian region. Overall,men spent an average . . . [Full text of this article]

Brian H McKinstry, Chief Scientist Office research fellow

Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9DX brian.mckinstry@ed.ac.uk

Iain Colthart, research officer, Katy Elliot, administrator

NHS Education for Scotland, The Lister, Edinburgh EH8 9DR

Colin Hunter, national GP coordinator for primary care

NHS Education for Scotland, Hanover Building, Edinburgh EH2 2NN