Australian 2023 anaesthesia workforce snapshot

15 February 2024

We've released an anaesthesia workforce snapshot which highlights that the anaesthesia workforce in Australia continues to increase at pre-pandemic growth rates.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic health authorities globally are grappling with workforce shortages, driven by a range of factors including an increasing elective and planned surgery workload and supply-side issues such as reduced skilled migration during the pandemic.

Anecdotally, the pandemic may have accelerated some workforce changes that were already occurring, such as a trend for our fellows, trainees and specialist international medical graduates to have a more balanced lifestyle.

The college has released an anaesthesia workforce snapshot which highlights that the anaesthesia workforce in Australia continues to increase at pre-pandemic growth rates. As at December 2023 there are:

• 1530 anaesthesia trainees in Australia – an increase of 4.7 per cent compared with 12 months ago and 15.7 per cent compared with December 2019, prior to the pandemic.
• 5514 specialist anaesthetists in Australia – an increase of 3.4 per cent compared with 12 months ago and 11.5 per cent compared with December 2019, prior to the pandemic.

New Zealand experienced similar trends with 311 anaesthesia trainees in 2023 (up 16.9 per cent compared with December 2019) and 891 specialist anaesthetists (up 13.9 per cent compared with December 2019).