Ophthalmology Census 2021: A Demographic Characterisation of Ophthalmologists in Portugal
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20344/amp.20321Keywords:
Ophthalmologists/statistics & numerical data, Ophthalmology, Portugal, Surveys and QuestionnairesAbstract
Introduction: Human resources in ophthalmology have recently received particular attention, and it has been questioned whether there is a sufficient number of workers. The aim of this study was to analyze and characterize Portugal’s ophthalmologist population.
Methods: In this descriptive, cross-sectional study, an online questionnaire was sent to all ophthalmologists registered with the Portuguese College of Ophthalmology in December 2021. Information on the following variables was collected and analyzed: demographic factors, professional qualifications, professional activity, weekly professional activity and medium-term plans.
Results: Among the 910 registered ophthalmologists, a response rate of 64.7% was achieved. There were 0.9 ophthalmologists for every 10 000 inhabitants, 0.45:10 000 working in the public sector (0.35:10 000 full-time equivalent). Among the respondents, 57.6% were over 50 years old (59.6% male), 97.3% were Portuguese, 46.7% completed their residency in the Lisbon region, 27.3% complemented their programme with additional training, 9.5% had a PhD and approximately 58% lived and worked in large urban centres. Regarding professional activity, 58.5% of the respondents worked in the public sector (4.2% exclusively), while 67.9% worked in different economic sectors. The median number of weekly working hours reported was 45 hours, with those in the public sector reporting 35 hours. Private/social sector work and public sector work accounted for 12 926 hours/week and 10 808 hours/week, respectively. It was found that 31.4% of the respondents provided emergency medical services and that 52.8% performed surgical procedures more than once a week. Looking ahead, 38.7% of the ophthalmologists intended to reduce their workload within the next five years due to family reasons, fatigue and demotivation. The projected rate of retirement or cessation of activity in the next five years was estimated to be 1.7%, while an average of 20 new ophthalmologists are expected to enter the profession annually, resulting in a generational balance of 0.8%.
Conclusion: While the number of ophthalmologists in Portugal meets the international recommendations, there is a shortage in the public sector and most ophthalmologists work in large urban centres. The number of ophthalmologists in Portugal is expected to be stable for the next five years.
Downloads
References
Correia T, Gomes I, Nunes P, Dussault G. Health workforce monitoring in Portugal: does it support strategic planning and policy-making? Health Policy. 2020;124:303-10. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2019.12.014
Jambroes M, van Honschooten R, Doosje J, Stronks K, Essink-Bot ML. How to characterize the public health workforce based on essential public health operations? environmental public health workers in the Netherlands as an example. BMC Public Health. 2015;15:750. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-015-2095-5
Diallo K, Zurn P, Gupta N, Dal Poz M. Monitoring and evaluation of human resources for health: an international perspective. Hum Resour Health. 2003;1:3. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1478-4491-1-3
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Health at a Glance 2021: OECD Indicators. OECD. 2021. [cited 2022 Nov 09]. Available from:
https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/b39949d7-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/b39949d7-en.
Michas F. Number of ophthalmologists per population in Europe 2020. Statista. 2021. [cited 2023 Mar 12]. Available from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/711061/number-of-ophthalmologists-in-european-union-eu/.
Ministério da Saúde. Actuais e futuras necessidades previsionais de médicos (SNS) 2011. Administração Central do Sistema de Saúde 2011. [cited 2023 Feb 12]. Available from: https://saudeimpostos.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/actuais-e-futuras-necessidades-previsionais-de-mc3a9dicos-snsacss-9-2011.pdf.
Santana P, Peixoto H, Duarte N. Demography of physicians in portugal: prospective analysis. Acta Med Port. 2014;27:246-51. DOI: https://doi.org/10.20344/amp.5183
Magalhães A, Falcão M, Campos N, Monteiro Grillo M, Murta J, Breda J, et al. The national strategy for eye care. Rev Soc Port Oftalmol. 2018;42.
Yu M, Keel S, Mariotti S, Mills JA, Muller A. Development of the WHO eye care competency framework. Hum Resour Health. 2023;21:46. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-023-00834-4
Dussault G, Dubois CA. Human resources for health policies: a critical component in health policies. Hum Resour Health. 2003;1:1. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1478-4491-1-1
Pick ZS, Stewart J, Elder MJ. The New Zealand ophthalmology workforce 2008. Clin Exp Ophthalmol. 2008;36:762-6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1442-9071.2008.01874.x
Hingorani M, Harcourt J. Workforce Census 2018. London: The Royal College of Ophthalmologists; 2018.
Maclennan PA, McGwin G Jr, Searcey K, Owsley C. A survey of Alabama eye care providers in 2010-2011. BMC Ophthalmol. 2014;14:44. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2415-14-44
Micieli JA. Geographic distribution of ophthalmologists in Ontario: a 10-year review. Can J Ophthalmol. 2014;49:283-6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcjo.2014.01.006
Department of Health and Aged Care. Australia’s Future Health Workforce report. Canberra: DHAC; 2018.
Jones TL, Baxter MA, Khanduja V. A quick guide to survey research. Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 2013;95:5-7. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1308/003588413X13511609956372
Instituto Nacional de Estatística. Censos 2021. 2021. [cited 2023 Oct 03]. Available from: https://censos.ine.pt/scripts/db_censos_2021.html.
Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos. Recursos Humanos: médicos por especialidade 2021. [cited 2022 Nov 02]. Available from: https://www.pordata.pt/portugal/medicos+nao+especialistas+e+especialistas+por+especialidade-147-3538.
Phillips AW, Friedman BT, Utrankar A, Ta AQ, Reddy ST, Durning SJ. Surveys of health professions trainees: prevalence, response rates, and predictive factors to guide researchers. Acad Med. 2017;92:222-8. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000001334
Phillips AW. Proper applications for surveys as a study methodology. West J Emerg Med. 2017;18:8-11. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5811/westjem.2016.11.32000
Asch DA, Jedrziewski MK, Christakis NA. Response rates to mail surveys published in medical journals. J Clin Epidemiol. 1997;50:1129-36. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0895-4356(97)00126-1
Kellerman SE, Herold J. Physician response to surveys. A review of the literature. Am J Prev Med. 2001;20:61-7. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0749-3797(00)00258-0
Taylor T, Scott A. Do physicians prefer to complete online or mail surveys? Findings from a national longitudinal survey. Eval Health Prof. 2019;42:41-70. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0163278718807744
Jefferson L, Bloor K, Maynard A. Women in medicine: historical perspectives and recent trends. Br Med Bull. 2015;114:5-15. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/bmb/ldv007
Lo TC, Rogers SL, Hall AJ, Lim LL. Differences in practice of ophthalmology by gender in Australia. Clin Exp Ophthalmol. 2019;47:840-6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ceo.13523
Newman TH, Parry MG, Zakeri R, Pegna V, Nagle A, Bhatti F, et al. Gender diversity in UK surgical specialties: a national observational study. BMJ Open. 2022;12:e055516. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055516
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Acta Médica Portuguesa
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
All the articles published in the AMP are open access and comply with the requirements of funding agencies or academic institutions. The AMP is governed by the terms of the Creative Commons ‘Attribution – Non-Commercial Use - (CC-BY-NC)’ license, regarding the use by third parties.
It is the author’s responsibility to obtain approval for the reproduction of figures, tables, etc. from other publications.
Upon acceptance of an article for publication, the authors will be asked to complete the ICMJE “Copyright Liability and Copyright Sharing Statement “(http://www.actamedicaportuguesa.com/info/AMP-NormasPublicacao.pdf) and the “Declaration of Potential Conflicts of Interest” (http:// www.icmje.org/conflicts-of-interest). An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author to acknowledge receipt of the manuscript.
After publication, the authors are authorised to make their articles available in repositories of their institutions of origin, as long as they always mention where they were published and according to the Creative Commons license.
