The NHS faces a staffing challenge as the majority of its staff will be women by 2017.

Personnel Today reports the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) there was once a challenge to get women into the medical profession, now there will be a challenge to retain after they have started families.

The RCP’s report, Women in Medicine, states women account for 40 percent of all doctors, 42 percent of GPs and 28 percent of consultants. More than half of all new medical students each year are women, leading to a forecast of women making up the majority of GPs by 2013 and most of the medical workforce by around 2017.

The report states: “The main challenge ahead is no longer barriers to entry or delays to the career progression of women. It is to ensure that the increasing proportion of women is effectively, economically, and fairly incorporated into the workforce for the benefit of patients.”

Jane Dacre, chair of the working group which produced the report, told Personnel Today: "More research is essential to find out how reorganising shift patterns and access to childcare facilities will affect the choices doctors make about how they work."

Currently, only about one in five female doctors who work in hospitals are on part-time contracts. At senior consultant level, nearly one-third (30%) of women work part-time.