Hours worked by General Practitioners and waiting times for Primary Care

M. Swami; H. Gravelle; A Scott; J Williams

doi:10.1002/hec.3782

Hours worked by General Practitioners and waiting times for Primary Care

M. Swami, H. Gravelle, A Scott, J Williams

Centre for Health Economics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The decline in the working hours of general practitioners (GPs) is a key factor influencing access to healthcare in many countries. We investigate the effect of changes in hours worked by general practitioners (GPs) on waiting times in primary care using the MABEL longitudinal survey of Australian doctors. We estimate GP fixed effects models for waiting time and use family circumstances to instrument for GP’s hours worked. We find that a 10% reduction in hours worked increases average patient waiting time by 12%. Our findings highlight the importance of GPs’ labour supply at the intensive margin in determining the length of time patients must wait to see their doctor.

Original language	English
Number of pages	20
Journal	Health Economics
Early online date	19 Jun 2018
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.3782
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 19 Jun 2018

Bibliographical note

© 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details

Keywords

primary care
waiting times
labour supply
fixed-effects
Instrumental Variable model
MABEL Survey

Access to Document

10.1002/hec.3782

MS HG AS JW Hours wrkd GPs & wait times primary care Accepted Hlth Econ 16 May 2018
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details
Accepted author manuscript, 910 KB

Cite this

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abstract = "The decline in the working hours of general practitioners (GPs) is a key factor influencing access to healthcare in many countries. We investigate the effect of changes in hours worked by general practitioners (GPs) on waiting times in primary care using the MABEL longitudinal survey of Australian doctors. We estimate GP fixed effects models for waiting time and use family circumstances to instrument for GP{\textquoteright}s hours worked. We find that a 10% reduction in hours worked increases average patient waiting time by 12%. Our findings highlight the importance of GPs{\textquoteright} labour supply at the intensive margin in determining the length of time patients must wait to see their doctor.",

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