Facts - Physician Aging and Retirement

…the average age of BC physicians is 51.1 years old.

What does this mean for healthcare in BC?

Like the rest of the Canada, BC’s physician population is aging. As the baby boomers near retirement age, more and more physicians are choosing to either close or scale down their practices, as indicated by the 2010 National Physician Survey.

• 9.6% of practicing physicians plan on retiring completely from practice within the next 2 years
• 40.1% plan on reducing their total weekly work hours
• 30.2% plan to decrease their hours on-call
• 30% want to reduce their clinical hours
• 22.4% want to decrease the amount of administrative work they do

BC will face significant challenges in the future as the population ages and more doctors approach retirement.  It is becoming increasingly important to take a comprehensive approach in developing a sustainable physician resource plan to ensure that British Columbians continue to have timely access to doctors. BC needs to develop and implement a plan that makes certain we will have enough physicians to take care of this province’s growing and aging population.   For more information, see our policy paper, Doctors Today and Tomorrow: Planning British Columbia’s Physician Workforce.