Medical workforce planning: let’s keep it current

Askew, Deborah A; Hansar, Naomi R; Dick, Marie-Louise B

doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.2009.tb02694.x

Topics

National medical workforce registration could provide an ideal opportunity for better collection of useful workforce data

The well recognised global shortage of doctors1 reinforces the need for effective medical workforce planning. Simplistically, medical workforce planning aims to ensure an adequate supply of doctors with the appropriate skills to meet the current and projected future medical care needs of the population.2 This requires accurate information about the current medical workforce,3 but Australia lacks comprehensive, timely, nationally consistent and longitudinally linked data.3,4

Discipline of General Practice, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD.

Correspondence: d.askew@uq.edu.au

1. World Health Organization. The world health report 2006 — working together for health. Geneva: WHO, 2006. http://www.who.int/whr/2006/en (accessed Apr 2009).
2. Gorman DF, Brooks PM. On solutions to the shortage of doctors in Australia and New Zealand. Med J Aust 2009; 190: 152-156. <MJA full text>
3. Joyce CM, McNeil JJ, Stoelwinder JU. Time for a new approach to medical workforce planning. Med J Aust 2004; 180: 343-346. <MJA full text>
4. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Medical labour force 2006. Canberra: AIHW, 2008. (National health labour force series no. 41; AIHW Cat. No. HWL 42.)
5. Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council. National Registration and Accreditation Scheme for the Health Professions. Consultation paper: proposed arrangements for information sharing and privacy. 3 Nov 2008. http://www.nhwt.gov.au/documents/National%20Registration %20and%20Accreditation/Consultation%20Paper%20Info%20Sharing %20and%20Privacy%202.0.pdf (accessed May 2009).
6. Health Workforce Australia. National Registration and Accreditation Scheme. http://www.nhwt.gov.au/natreg.asp (accessed Apr 2009).
7. Joyce CM. Uncovering an invisible workforce [letter]. Med J Aust 2004; 181: 645. <MJA full text>
8. Australian Health Workforce Ministerial Council. Communiqué 8 May 2009. Design of new National Registration and Accreditation Scheme. http://www.ahmac.gov.au/cms_documents/2009-May%208%20Australian%20 Health%20Workforce%20Ministerial%20Council%20Communique.doc (accessed May 2009).
9. Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand. Medical Schools Outcomes Database. http://www.medicaldeans.org.au/msod.html (accessed May 2009).
10. Thistlethwaite JE, Leeder SR, Kidd MR, Shaw T. Addressing general practice workforce shortages: policy options. Med J Aust 2008; 189: 118-121. <MJA full text>
11. Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. The Pre-vocational General Practice Placements Program. http://www.racgp.org.au/pgppp (accessed Apr 2009).
12. Wilkinson D, Dick ML, Askew DA. General practitioners with special interests: risk of a good thing becoming bad? Med J Aust 2005; 183: 84-86. <MJA full text>

Online responses are no longer available. Please refer to our instructions for authors page for more information.