Workforce Insights: July 2025

Advocacy in action – RACP President meets with the NSW Minister for Health 

Professor Jennifer Martin, RACP President, took your concerns about the mounting pressures on the physician workforce in NSW to the NSW Government at a meeting with the Hon Ryan Park MP, NSW Minister for Health and Minister for Regional Health, in June. With her was Associate Professor Kudzai Kanhutu, College Dean and Interim Executive General Manager of Policy & Advocacy, Dr Robert Tait, Interim NSW/ACT Committee Chair, Madelyn Smith, Senior Policy & Advocacy Officer and Lucy Bonafont, Senior Executive Officer NSW/ACT.

The discussion focused on the urgent need to support the physician workforce, safeguard the wellbeing of our members, and ensure the long-term sustainability of physician training in NSW.

We are looking forward to working closely with the minister and NSW Health to support and strengthen the specialist medical workforce across the state and drive meaningful improvements to the health system.

NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into Healthcare Funding 

Does the NSW healthcare funding system adequately support you to care for your patients and yourselves? The report of the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into Healthcare Funding says it doesn’t.

The report echoes what frontline physicians have been saying for a long time and what we outlined in our extensive work with the Commission over the past year – the latest being our response to the Commission’s invitation to comment on its final submissions. You can read our response here.

Chronic underfunding has contributed to a burnout crisis among physicians and inequitable outcomes among patients, and a comprehensive workforce plan is urgently needed to tackle this effectively. 

We strongly support the report's recommendation to expand specialist training networks and create dedicated rural and regional training pathways. 

Without immediate investment in expanding the medical workforce and improving working conditions, the system will face even greater strain, intensifying pressure on the healthcare workforce, worsening burnout and undermining the wellbeing of physicians, trainees, and the sustainability of training programs. 

The report calls for a shift towards collaborative, system-wide healthcare planning and greater investment in preventive services. These are the key themes we highlighted in our submissions, hearing evidence, and face-to-face discussions with the Commission. Strengthening preventive care will help ease pressure on the health system and deliver better outcomes for patients. 

Getting Medicare to keep pace with specialist practice

We recognise that some Medicare items need to better reflect the complexities of physician practice to ensure better outcomes for patients and practitioners.

We recently met with the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing to discuss Medicare compliance, in particular Medicare items 132 and 133 used by physicians and paediatricians.  The Department had identified increasing claims for these items as a 2025 compliance priority and wants to ensure physicians understand how to correctly claim these items. 

We were able to emphasise the growing complexity of care which explains the growth in use of items 132 and 133, and more broadly the need for Medicare items that reflect the developing requirements of physician and paediatric practice. We also advocated for improved communication and fit-for-purpose resources on Medicare claiming for practitioners, including at a recent meeting with the Professional Services Review.

Although there have been no changes to items 132 and 133, the Department has recently released the factsheet, Chronic disease management by consultant physicians, to help explain how to use these item numbers.  There is also an earlier Department checklist, Claiming Items 132 and 133 Quick Guide and the Department’s Understanding Medicare: Provider Handbook.

We will continue to engage with the Department to ensure an improved understanding of the realities of modern physician practice and explain what you, as members, need in a complex Medicare system.

Please reach out to the Policy & Advocacy team if you need further information or have any questions about the work we are doing with the Department on ensuring a fit for purpose Medicare system.

Australian Productivity Commission Review: Delivering Quality Care More Efficiently  

We recently made a submission on your behalf to the Australian Productivity Commission. We recommend key reforms to optimise your productivity and wellbeing, and assist you to deliver quality health care efficiently. Our recommended key reforms include:  

• modernisation of My Health Record 
• comprehensive support for physician wellbeing 
• improved medicine access 
• safe AI integration 
• expanding efforts to reduce low-value care 
• better collaborative funding and commissioning of health care services for care integration 
• more investment in primary and secondary prevention to reduce pressure on our hospitals.  

Submission: submission-to-the-productivity-commission-inquiry-delivering-quality-care-more-efficiently.pdf

Ahpra review: National Prescribing Competencies Framework

Are you aware of the national prescribing standards and how they are relevant to your everyday work? In consultation with 13 specialties including clinical pharmacology, paediatrics, neurology and addiction medicine we provided a comprehensive submission to the Ahpra review of the National Prescribing Competencies Framework. The Framework supports consistent prescribing standards and guides education, regulation, and professional development nationally.  

Our submission supports the alignment of the Framework with quality use of medicines principles. We also recommend better support for practitioners and patients through:  

• clearly addressing real-world prescribing complexities in areas like off-label prescribing, shared decision-making and clinical judgment in uncertain/emerging evidence settings 
• improved guidance that reflects the ethical and practical responsibilities of advanced prescribing  
• engagement with the College to ensure the Framework stays relevant to evolving clinical scenarios and can be implemented in busy practice. 

A revised Framework is expected to be available before the end of the year.    

Submission: racp-submission-to-ahpra-national-prescribing-competencies-framework-review.pdf  

College responds to Grattan report on specialist access 

Specialist access issues are a sign of an unhealthy health system that demands comprehensive and systematic reform. The Grattan Institute’s report, released in June, Special Treatment: Improving Australians’ Access to Specialist Care highlights the challenges Australian’s face receiving timely access to specialist care and the need for long-term thinking and collaborative solutions.

We support the key recommendations in the report that could transform specialist access by: 

• improving workforce development through a national health workforce planning body 
• boosting funding for public and bulk-billed clinics, particularly in under-represented specialties and rural areas 
• funding collaborative care models for specialists, GPs and other health professionals 
• supporting rural specialist training pathways to attract talent and improve retention 
• encouraging cost transparency.  

In our media release and subsequent media interviews with the RACP President, Professor Jennifer Martin, we also stressed the need for Medicare rebates that keep up with inflation and reflect the complexities and costs of providing care. You can read our media release here. High costs a symptom of an unhealthy system- physicians call for significant reforms

Your State and Territory Committees working for you  

A safe and well-resourced medical specialist workforce is essential to a functioning, effective and sustainable health system.

This is the key message your State and Territory Committees and the Policy and Advocacy team have taken to governments and departments of health around Australia in the past few months.

Across the regions we are committed to advocating for workforce policies that are evidence-based, informed by your expertise, and designed to improve the health and wellbeing of all people in our communities.

The challenges for physicians and trainees providing care in regional, rural and remote areas have been a focus area for our advocacy, particularly the challenges of shortages and workloads, highlighting the need for concerted action to attract and retain specialists in the bush.  

South Australia

Strong, nonpartisan, patient-focused advocacy was the focus of a joint meeting between the South Australian college chairs from RACP, RACS, RANZCP, RANZCOG, ACEM, ANZCA, and the RACGP. Associate Professor Andrew Lee, RACP South Australian Committee Chair, joined this collaborative meeting where the colleges could voice concerns, propose and discuss system-level remedies, and begin the process of coordinating united advocacy ahead of the March 2026 state election.

Tasmania

Ahead of the Tasmanian Election on 19 July, the Tasmanian Committee and Policy and Advocacy team developed an Election Statement, highlighting key healthcare priorities for the incoming government. The Tasmanian Committee advocates for equitable access to high quality healthcare for all Tasmanians, with special attention to priority groups such as children.

Western Australia

In Western Australia Dr Helen Van Gessel, Chair of the Western Australia Committee highlighted the RACP’s Regional, Rural and Remote Physician Strategy – “…to increase the number of high quality, well-resourced and attractive accredited training settings and training positions in regional and rural locations so that trainees competitively seek these and consider remaining in these settings following the completion of their training” when she met with the newly appointed Western Australia Minister for Health and Mental Health, the Hon Meredith Hammat MLA.

Northern Territory

Workforce and wellbeing concerns, particularly the challenges of recruiting and retaining physicians and trainees to remote practice locations in the Northern Territory was the main focus of a meeting between Dr Kirsty Neal, Chair of the Northern Territory Committee and Sam Dettman, Senior Policy and Advocacy Officer, with a policy advisor to the Northern Territory Health Minister, the Hon Steven Edgington. We emphasised workforce and wellbeing concerns, particularly the challenges of recruiting and retaining physicians and trainees to work in remote locations.

Aotearoa New Zealand: speaking out about workforce challenges and priorities 

Taking strike action is a last resort for doctors, however the decision by senior doctors in Aotearoa New Zealand to go on strike on 1 May highlights how urgent the need for change is.  

In our media release Dr Hamish McCay, Aotearoa New Zealand President, affirmed that strike action is “absolutely the last resort”. However, cuts to the health budget will worsen the healthcare workforce crisis. More needs to be done to improve patient access to specialist care, which is in dire shape right now, with no improvement in the waiting time to see a specialist. Forty per cent of patients are still waiting longer than the government’s four-month target and data shows Aotearoa New Zealand still has fewer specialists per person than Australia.  

“The demand for medical specialists has continued to grow at the same time that the healthcare system is facing a severe workforce shortage. Unless urgent action is taken to address these workforce challenges, we will continue to see many doctors leave the public system, the country, or the profession altogether,” said Dr McCay. 

In our submission to the Ministry of Health on workforce regulation, we emphasised the importance of ensuring culturally safe practice, the importance of physician engagement on proposed changes to healthcare delivery, growing our own workforce through initiatives such as Māori and Pacific Admission Scheme (MAPAS) and better supporting overseas trained physicians to stay in Aotearoa New Zealand.   

The government decision to regulate Physicians Associates (formally announced on 26 April 2025) is not the answer to a health system under pressure. Our concerns were raised in the media by Dr McCay and Dr Matthew Wheeler, Māori Health Committee Chair.

Aotearoa New Zealand President-elect Associate Professor Janak de Zoysa and Dr Matthew Doogue from ASCEPT gave an oral submission to the Health Select Committee in June on the Medicines Amendment Bill, noting chronic medical workforce shortages have a significant flow on impact on medicines distribution that demands consideration. Their appearance started from circa 2:20 hrs in this recording.