Health Workforce Challenges in Australia

The World Health Institution asserts that “health systems can only function with health workers.”1 in Australia,health practitioners – a subset of all health workers – comprise 5% of the national workforce,with nurses accounting for roughly half.2 This workforce is distributed across public and private facilities,primary,secondary,and tertiary care settings,and across states and territories,also overlapping with areas like disability and aged care.3 Currently, the workforce faces pressure from rising service demand, environmental, geopolitical, and economic factors, ongoing policy changes, and disparities in pay and working conditions.4,5 This leads to workforce shortages, maldistribution in certain areas, deficits in specific healthcare types, and inequitable access to care.2,3,5 Between 2013 and 2022, the health practitioner workforce grew by 37%, with the most meaningful increases among allied health professionals (67%), medical practitioners (41%), dental practitioners (29%), nurses and midwives (26%), and general practitioners (24%).2 Though, when adjusted for population size (fulltime equivalent positions per 100,000 population), the overall increase was 22% over the same period, varying by profession (general practitioners, 2.7%; nurses and midwives, 13.2%; allied health professionals, 53.1%) and region. demand continues to exceed growth, with reported shortages in 82% of occupations in 2023.2 Globally, the health workforce experienced significant attrition due to the COVID-19 pandemic,2,6 a decline in goodwill (such as willingness to work unpaid overtime),7 and fatigue stemming from constant change.8,9 Workforce instability impacts the continuity and quality of services and varies geographically due to staff availability and employer competition. Recent royal commissions have emphasized the need for a larger, better-trained, and better-compensated care workforce, especially in rural and regional areas.10,11

The increasing strain on the health system and its workforce, coupled with fiscal constraints, complex professional governance, and interactions with other systems, necessitates a consolidated workforce policy to align efforts in supporting and strengthening the health system. In their review of federal health workforce policy in Australia,published in this issue of the MJA,Topp and colleagues…