Study on supply, demand and distribution of physicians in JAPAN

Abstract

　Recently, the physician shortage problems in Japan have been center of attention. The shortage in pediatrics, obstetrics/gynecology and anesthesiology is said to be especially severe. But there are few empirical studies about such shortage problems. The target of this paper is to clarify the structure of the shortage problems of 3 clinical departments.
　Several indexes were identified as proxies of supply and demand of physicians for each clinical department. The trend of supply and demand of 3 clinical departments' doctors was estimated using these proxies. Coefficient of variation and Hirschman=Herfindahl Index was calculated to measure geographic distribution and agglomeration of doctors.
　This study demonstrated that the main cause of the shortage in obstetrics/gynecology was supply-side problem, but the main cause of the shortage in pediatrics and anesthesiology was demand-side problem.
　The situations of‘physician shortage' are quite different among different clinical departments. Policies based on each clinical department's situation are also required.