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Policy and Advocacy

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Health Workforce

Shaping the future of our workforce: prioritising advocacy for regional, rural, and remote areas, workforce retention, and member wellbeing.

In the 2022 Member Satisfaction Survey, 75% of members (n=2500) prioritised ‘workplace issues’ for policy and advocacy work going forward. In 2023, the College Policy and Advocacy Council (CPAC) and the Board approved a new focus area on workforce issues, including a member consultation process to identify priority areas for workforce advocacy.

On this page

Over the course of 2024, the RACP has worked to engage with our members to identify their workforce priorities, including:

  1. Consulting with RACP bodies at their regular committee meetings.
  2. Surveying members about priorities for workforce advocacy and some emerging issues via the Your Workforce, Your Say survey.
  3. Running focus groups in the states and territories to understand workforce related issues in the local context.

Your Workforce, Your Say

Based on the member consultations, we have identified three key areas, and underlying goals, relevant to workforce to focus advocacy efforts in 2025–2028: 

  • Regional, rural and remote workforce 
  • Workforce attraction and retention 
  • Member wellbeing (including daily practice challenges). 

We're commencing policy work on these areas in 2025, in the meantime please see below for some related work.

Regional, rural, and remote workforce

The RACP are committed to achieving equitable health outcomes for Australians and New Zealanders living in regional and rural locations by prioritising, advocating, and supporting regional and rural workforce and training initiatives.

For further information, visit the Rural, Regional and Remote Physician Strategy.

Workforce attraction and retention

An appropriately funded, well-distributed, resilient, and well-supported specialist workforce is a priority goal for us and the patient communities of specialists. Some patients face difficulties accessing specialist care, and we advocate for targeted Government strategies to improve specialist workforce supply.

For further information, visit attraction and retention.

Member wellbeing

We believe improving the health and wellbeing of medical professionals requires the cooperation of government, employers, colleges, regulators, doctors’ health services, senior leaders, supervisors, colleagues, and doctors themselves.

For further information, visit Member health and wellbeing.

Indigenous workforce

Indigenous workforce continues to be a priority for the RACP, and workforce goals will be refined in consultation with our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Committee.

For further information, visit the Medical Specialist Access Framework.

What we’ve been doing

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We acknowledge and pay respect to the Traditional Custodians and Elders — past, present and emerging — of the lands and waters on which RACP members and staff live, learn and work. RACP acknowledges Māori as tangata whenua and Te Tiriti o Waitangi partners in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Find out more about our commitment to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Māori health equity.

© 2025 - Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP)  |  ABN 90 270 343 237 and ACN 000 039 047.

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