Report confirms need for urgent action on health workforce planning
A recently released report reinforces the need for urgent action on workforce planning, which must include the establishment of an independent health workforce planning agency.
Australian Medical Association President Dr Danielle McMullen said the Whole of medical workforce compendium report, demonstrated just how desperately improved workforce planning was needed.
“For many years the federal AMA has advocated for improved workforce planning and the need to re-establish an independent workforce planning agency that can guide workforce policy and funding,” Dr McMullen said.
“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.”
While Australia had invested heavily in increased medical student numbers, there had been a failure to plan for the needs of the community, Dr McMullen said.
“The projected shortage of specialists and specialist training positions in the report is one of the key reasons Australians are increasingly struggling to access the care they need.
“A failure to plan is seeing more medical students enter the workforce, but we are not seeing the necessary investment in downstream training places that deliver enough fully fledged GPs and non-GP specialists to provide care in the community.
“We have seen some welcome investments by the federal government in additional GP training places but more needs to be done and the states and territories also need to do more so that the supply of other training places matches community need.”
Dr McMullen said the AMA would like 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.
“Governments have been very quick to point the finger of blame when it comes to problems the community has in accessing medical services, but this report reveals they need to do more to fund more training places to meet demand.
“The AMA has set out practical, evidence-based solutions in its 2026–27 Pre-Budget Submission, including 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.
“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.”
