Australasian College of Health Service Management Asia Pacific Congress 28 th August 2013

1. Health Workforce 2025 Australasian College of Health Service Management Asia Pacific Congress 28th August 2013 Maureen McCarty Health Workforce Australia

2. HWA’s key objectives • Building capacity to deliver fit for purpose health professionals, more quickly and efficiently • Boosting productivity of the workforce and maximising their use • Improving distribution to ensure the health workforce are placed in areas and specialties where they are needed

3. Achieving HWA’s key objectives • Building the evidence for health workforce reform through planning, research and evaluation • Providing leadership to influence national policy and programs on health workforce innovation and reform • Working in collaboration with stakeholders to drive reforms and support a sustainable health workforce

4. Health Workforce 2025 Volumes 1 and 2

5. Doctors: What did we learn? • Short term: supply of doctors stable however a mal-distribution across Australia • By 2016: insufficient specialist training places for projected graduates • Dependence on immigration creates ongoing risk

6. Nurses: What did we learn? • Short term: supply of nurses is stable • Long term: significant shortfall • Some areas of nursing are especially at risk in terms of supply: mental health and aged care

7. Geographic distribution: What did we learn? • Geographic distribution of the workforce remains a significant concern, in particular for doctors • Vital that the projected increases in the supply of doctors are distributed to where they are most needed • Current policy settings not capable of achieving desired shifts in distribution

8. Immigration: What did we learn? • The current health professional workforce in Australia is highly dependent on immigration for doctors • Changes to temporary migration can significantly impact short-term need for health professionals by managing short-term fluctuations in supply • Measures to improve self-sufficiency will require concurrent additional effort in training and workforce reform

9. Training: What did we learn? • Insufficient internships and vocational training places for graduating doctors • Not enough employment opportunities for newly graduating nurses • Training effort alone is not sufficient to address nursing shortages • Projected training requirements are dependent on policy choices made in other areas

10. Health Workforce 2025 Volume 3

11. Medical specialties: What did we learn? • Some medical specialties are more popular than others • We do not have enough generalists • The medical pathway is poorly coordinated • High reliance on international medical graduates

12. policy responses

13. Policy challenges • Barriers to workforce reform and innovation • Mal-distribution of the workforce (geographic and across professions/specialties) • Efficiency and effectiveness of the training system • Policy approach to self-sufficiency

14. Policy proposals • Improved productivity through workforce innovation and reform • Improved mechanisms for the provision of efficient training • Addressing barriers and enablers to workforce reform • Streamlining clinical training funding • Considerations for achieving national self-sufficiency

15. 1. Improved productivity through workforce innovation and reform a) Developing evidence to inform a comprehensive national approach in response to the projected nursing imbalance Focusing on factors known to influence workforce supply i.e. retention, productivity, skill mix, training system b) Supporting an ongoing implementation program of nationally coordinated workforce re-design, change management and adoption to progress workforce reforms nationally

16. 2. Improved mechanisms for the provision of efficient training a) Aligning training and workforce need by developing rolling national training plans and strategies for major health professions b) Establishing the National Medical Training Advisory Network for improved coordination of medical training c) Driving efficient and effective training through reducing unnecessary variation in professional clinical training requirements of universities and higher education providers

17. 3. Addressing barriers and enablers to workforce reform • Industrial • Analysing health workforce industrial arrangements and agreements to identify opportunities for reform • Identifying a common set of goals, principles and conditions across industrial agreements that could be used to support reform b) Legislative • Analysing Commonwealth, State and Territory legislation to identify factors that support or hinder flexible use of the workforce • Identifying opportunities to harmonise legislation

18. 4. Streamlining clinical training funding • Developing nationally consistent approaches to clinical training funding in public, non-government and private sectors, supported by the establishment of efficient training pathways • Streamlining existing funding within the context of activity based funding for teaching and training in public hospitals

19. 5. Considerations for achieving national self-sufficiency • Analysing implications of differing levels of self-sufficiency in the health workforce and interaction with other policy priorities including workforce distribution and training reform

20. @HWAGovAu hwa.gov.au Health Workforce Australia