TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — According to the Taiwan Medical Association (TMA), the average age of doctors in Taiwan is currently 51.5, potentially leading to a labor shortage in the nation’s healthcare system in the next decade.
Doctors in Taiwan are divided into 23 different departments. According to TMA, the top three departments with the highest average age are obstetricians and gynecologists (56.7), family medicine (54), and ophthalmology (53.7). The youngest, by comparison, include the radiation oncology department (46.9) and anesthesiology (48.2), per UDN.
TMA Chair Chou Ching-ming (周慶明) said early medical education did not differentiate between different disciplines, with most simply becoming general practitioners or family doctors. Later, these doctors opened their own clinics and continued to see patients as long as it was economically viable.
Chou says general practitioners are subject to market forces, that is, if no one registers for their clinic, they will not be able to continue practicing. Therefore, he believes there is no need to limit the age of practicing doctors.
Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) Department of Medical Affairs Director General Liu Yueh-ping (劉越萍) also said there is no specified retirement age for doctors in Taiwan. However, to ensure their medical professional capabilities, the MOHW maintains communication with TMA and provides continuing education every six years to ensure that doctors can still provide up-to-date medical services.
Uneven distribution of doctors
Still, some worry that the advanced age of many doctors in Taiwan could lead to a future manpower shortage. Chou says 1,300 medical students obtain their medical licenses annually, with the number of doctor deaths each year currently less than this figure.
Chou says there is no need to worry about a doctor shortage at the moment, as Taiwan currently has 55,000 licensed doctors. However, he is concerned about the uneven distribution of doctors amongst different specialty practices.
For example, Chou takes pediatrics as an example, as two decades ago, Taiwan averaged 400,000 newborns each year. In 2023, however, there were only about 130,000 babies born, and this decline has led young doctors away from the field of pediatrics as their first choice.
The Taiwan Pediatric Association confirms that it is difficult to recruit pediatric residents. Each year, it lists 130 residency opportunities but estimates that at most 90 people will be recruited for these vacancies.
For this reason, the National Health Insurance Administration has increased the medical bonus for pediatricians specializing in caring for children under the age of four. Chou says similar incentives should be extended to obstetricians, gynecologists, and other fields to ensure that Taiwan has enough doctors in all medical fields.
