Extending the medical workforce debate: let’s talk about self-sufficiency

To the Editor: Until recently, Australian medical workforce planning has seemed a rather ad-hoc affair. We have self-induced an undersupply of doctors (having actually reduced student numbers in the mid 1990s,1 taken a decade to increase production, and now have crashed into entirely foreseeable undersupply of intern placements). The establishment of Health Workforce Australia has promulgated some much needed detailed, future-focused planning, although the fragmented data landscape has clearly proved challenging.2-4