Our Health Workforce

The people who care for and treat us are one of the major strengths of our health system – more needs to be done to value their expertise and provide them support. Adequacy of our health workforce into the future is also one of the most significant challenges we face.

National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission Fact Sheet

A New Education Framework
A National Clinical Education and Training Agency
Improved training strategy
Access to Medicare and PBS
More information

The people who care for and treat us are one of the major strengths of our health system – more needs to be done to value their expertise and provide them support. Adequacy of our health workforce into the future is also one of the most significant challenges we face.

A New Education Framework

A new education framework is needed for the education and training of health professionals – moving towards a flexible, multi-disciplinary approach. This should also ensure clinical training infrastructure across all settings (public and private, hospitals, primary health care and other community settings).

A National Clinical Education and Training Agency

A National Clinical Education and Training Agency should be established. Its role should include:

• advising on the education and training needs of regions
• assisting with planning of clinical education infrastructure
• promoting innovation in education and training
• facilitating a competency framework as part of broad education approach
• reporting every three years on the accreditation standards of health professionals.

Improved training strategy

A comprehensive national strategy is required to recruit, retain and train Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health professionals.

A higher proportion of new health professional training places should be allocated to remote and rural areas.

Access to Medicare and PBS

To reflect current and evolving practice and to improve people’s access to health care, Medicare rebates and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme subsidies should apply in some specific circumstances and within defined scopes of practice to services provided by nurse practitioners and other registered health practitioners working in collaborative teams.

More information

This is a summary of some of the major recommendations of the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission. Full recommendations can be found in A Healthier Future For All Australians – Final Report of the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission – June 2009