Abstract
Introduction and aims
Health systems around the world face difficulties retaining their workforce, which is exacerbated by the early retirement of experienced clinicians. This study aims to determine how to incentivise doctors to delay their retirement.
Methods
We used a discrete choice experiment to estimate the relative importance of job characteristics in doctors’ willingness to delay retirement, and the number of extra years they were willing to delay retirement when job characteristics improved. 2885 British Medical Association members aged between 50 and 70 years, registered with the General Medical Council, practising in Scotland (in
December 2019), and who had not started to draw a pension were invited. We compared the preferences of hospital doctors (HDs) and general practitioners (GPs).
Results
The response rate was 27.4% (n=788). The number of extra years expected to work was the most important job characteristic for both respondents, followed by work intensity for GPs, whereas working hours and on-call were more important for HDs. Personalised working conditions and pension taxation were the least important characteristics for both groups. Setting all characteristics
to their BEST levels, GPs would be willing to delay retirement by 4 years and HDs by 7 years.
Conclusions
Characteristics related to the job rather than pension could have the greatest impact on delaying retirement among clinicians.
Health systems around the world face difficulties retaining their workforce, which is exacerbated by the early retirement of experienced clinicians. This study aims to determine how to incentivise doctors to delay their retirement.
Methods
We used a discrete choice experiment to estimate the relative importance of job characteristics in doctors’ willingness to delay retirement, and the number of extra years they were willing to delay retirement when job characteristics improved. 2885 British Medical Association members aged between 50 and 70 years, registered with the General Medical Council, practising in Scotland (in
December 2019), and who had not started to draw a pension were invited. We compared the preferences of hospital doctors (HDs) and general practitioners (GPs).
Results
The response rate was 27.4% (n=788). The number of extra years expected to work was the most important job characteristic for both respondents, followed by work intensity for GPs, whereas working hours and on-call were more important for HDs. Personalised working conditions and pension taxation were the least important characteristics for both groups. Setting all characteristics
to their BEST levels, GPs would be willing to delay retirement by 4 years and HDs by 7 years.
Conclusions
Characteristics related to the job rather than pension could have the greatest impact on delaying retirement among clinicians.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 60-68 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Health Policy |
| Volume | 126 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Early online date | 22 Nov 2021 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The survey instrument and all available data can be obtained by contacting the corresponding author (JC). Our thanks to those friends and colleagues whose discussions about retirement, lifetime allowances and pensions ceilings were the motivation for this study. Thanks to all those who participated in qualitative interviews and in developing, piloting and completing the survey. Thanks also go to BMA Scotland for the distribution of invitations. This study was funded by a grant from the University of Aberdeen Development Trust (UOA Ref: RG14022), and the qualitative data collection (reported separately) was supported by funding from BMA Scotland (UOA Ref: RG14434).
Keywords
- Discrete choice experiment
- Doctors
- Retirement
- Workforce retention
Access to Document
- Ryan_etal_HP_Won't_You_Stay_AAM
© 2021. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/