Workforce


The core business of the Australian health workforce is to provide effective and safe quality care that improves the health and wellbeing of the Australian community. However, many countries are facing similar challenges, in having a workforce that can deliver equitable, accessible, sustainable and safe health care. Therefore, a number of concentrated efforts are being undertaken to look at workforce planning and development.

With a changing medical workforce and changing workplace practices and environments this has been a challenge. There is a move away from traditional models of care and patterns of medical work and a shift towards service and workforce redesign. Workforce development and planning is influenced by many factors, and trends and changes in the workforce can be of an economic, demographic, social, legal, government and technological nature (Health Workforce Australia Website, Health Workforce Information Clearing House, 20051).

The Workforce Portfolio provides recommendations to emerging workforce policy issues, engaging with stakeholders to progress ideas to address a changing health system and medical workforce.


Mentoring Web Modules

The RACP mentoring program has been funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing. A pilot mentoring program was set up in rural Victoria in 2003 and this web based module is the result of lessons learnt from that pilot.

These modules contain information that will be useful for those who are interested in the mentoring process.

RACP Mentoring Web Modules (PDF File: 119KB)

Policies

In 2005, the College was asked to make a submission to the Productivity Commission's study on Australia's health workforce. Details of the study and our submission are available here. 


National Registration and Accreditation Scheme for Health Professionals

The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) at its meeting on 26 March 2008 took a major step towards improving Australia's health system by signing an Intergovernmental Agreement on the health workforce. 

This agreement will for the first time create a single national registration and accreditation system for nine health professions: medical practitioners; nurses and midwives; pharmacists; physiotherapists; psychologists; osteopaths; chiropractors; optometrists; and dentists (including dental hygienists, dental prosthetists and dental therapists).  The new arrangements will help health professionals move around the country more easily, reduce red tape, provide greater safeguards for the public and promote a more flexible, responsive and sustainable health workforce.   For example, the new scheme will maintain a public national register for each health profession that will ensure that a professional who has been banned from practising in one place is unable to practise elsewhere in Australia.

More information on the proposed scheme can be found here: http://www.nhwt.gov.au/natreg.asp

The Royal Australasian College of Physicians supports the principle of national registration and national accreditation and believes there are benefits to be gained from their implementation. The College has responded to calls for submissions on various aspects of the proposed arrangements made in early 2009.

In May 2009, details were announced of the design of the new scheme, in light of the extensive consultations. Details of the proposed design are available here.

Submissions on the scheme made by the College can be found below:

The College has also provided feedback to the Senate Inquiry on this scheme in April 2009
Senate Community Affairs Committee - Inquiry into National Registration and Accreditation Scheme for Doctors and Other Health Workers (PDF: 78KB) - NEW
 

Workforce Survey

The following report shows the results of the 2003 College survey of the clinical workforce in Internal Medicine and Paediatrics in Australasia.
Clinical Workforce Survey 2003 (PDF: 59KB)

 

 
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