A report from the RCP shows currently 40% of doctors are women including 48% of GPs and 28% of consultants - but over the next eight years this is set to increase ‘significantly'.
And, because female employees tend to prefer part-time and flexible hours, specialist health and social care recruiter HCL claims this will put a greater emphasis on flexible working in the profession putting pressure on HR in the sector to rely increasingly on temporary and flexible doctors.
Kate Bleasdale, executive vice chairman of HCL, said: "This rebalancing of the medical profession towards women is something we have been predicting for some time.
"We anticipate rising demand from our clients over the next few years as the proportion of doctors continues to shift towards women, and hospital doctors have to be able to tap into a large bank of flexible and appropriately qualified doctors in order to ensure rotas are sufficiently covered."
Women will dominate the medical profession by 2017
The majority of doctors in hospitals and general practice will be female by 2017, according to the Royal College of Physicians (RCP).
