Report confirms need for urgent action on health workforce planning
A recently released Department of Health, Disability and Ageing report reinforces the need for urgent action on workforce planning, which must include the establishment of an independent health workforce planning agency.
The Whole of medical workforce compendium report (link) contains several alarming findings that demonstrate the precipitous nature of Australia’s medical workforce now and in the future if action is not taken[LH1] .
For many years we have advocated for improved workforce planning and the need to re-establish an independent workforce planning agency that can guide workforce policy and funding.
This report confirms just how urgently this is needed and what the community is experiencing — that while the medical workforce is growing, we are seeing severe shortages of doctors in geographical areas and some specialties.
Its most alarming finding is the projected shortfall of specialists and registrars, with a forecast undersupply of 6,981 full-time equivalent specialists by 2033, rising to 12,812 by 2048, and an undersupply of 2,398 full-time equivalent registrars by 2033, rising to 3,885 by 2048.
The report also confirms Australia will remain heavily reliant on international medical graduates, who are an incredibly important part of our workforce, but we need to build a more sustainable and effective domestic training pipeline.
We released a media statement (link) about the report and called on all governments to commit to what’s needed as part of a national agreement. Agreement on the Hospital Registrar and Career Medical Officer Framework is also essential as part of ensuring those doctors who are yet to enter specialist training are well supported — which is critical to high-quality patient care and retention.
Our practical, evidence-based solutions include a major expansion of the federal government’s Specialist Training Program (STP) from 920 to 1,700 places over three years, with a focus on high-quality training experiences and places serving underserviced communities. The AMA also wants to see all governments commit to providing more specialist training places as part of a national agreement.
Establishing an independent health workforce planning agency to provide robust, data-driven insights into current and future workforce needs, would also enable more responsive and targeted policy interventions.
