Health Work Force Planning in Australia

This article discusses the health work force planning in Australia, including the reliance on internationally recruited medical professionals, government policies on international health worker immigration, and the sustainability of current policies.

Running head: HEALTH WORK FORCE PLANNING IN AUSTRALIA 1
Health Work Force Planning in Australia
Name
Institution

HEALTH WORK FORCE PLANNING IN AUSTRALIA 2
Executive Summary
The population of skilled migrations to Australia has undergone a rapid increase in the last three
decades. The Australian government adopted policy legislations aimed at funding rural
workforce institutions to recruit and encourage foreign medical graduates to offer their services
in the country’s rural areas through the Department of Health and Ageing. To date, that
international healthcare graduates comprise about 40% of the Australian medical workforce and
47% of the general practitioners in rural and remote regions. The Australian government has
institutionalized a wider range of policy and regulatory frameworks aimed at offering migrant
healthcare workforces with ample opportunities to offer their services. Such policies are put in
place by the country’s Health Workforce Division (HWD) which works with the mission of
developing and implementing policies, regulations and innovative strategies aimed at enhancing
the standards, capacity, and mix if the country’s health personnel. While the Australian
government has made the efforts of acquiring migrant healthcare professionals to fill the existing
workforce gaps, the policies put in place as unsustainable. The Government is faced with the
obligation of increasing its intake of students who are in need of pursuing courses such as
nursing and medicine in local institutions.

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Health Work Force Planning in Australia
Introduction
Wakerman et al. (2017) revealed that Australia depicts heavy reliance of internationally
recruited medical professionals particularly in its rural and remote regions. The population of
skilled migrations to Australia has undergone a rapid increase in the last three decades (figure 1).
According to Short, Marcus and Balasubramanian (2016), the population represents 68% of the
Department of Immigration and Citizenship’s permanent intakes. Balasubramanian et al. (2016)
explain that by 2016, a total of 95,873 healthcare practitioners from other economies were
accorded the opportunity to offer their services in the Australian jurisdiction through visa grants.
Balasubramanian et al. (2017) explained that of this population, 46,338 practitioners were
accorded the opportunity to serve on temporary terms while 49,535 people were accorded
permanent employment opportunities. Of this population, registered nurses accounted for the
largest share of migration workforces in Australia’s healthcare sector. With a total population of
48,936 migrant RNs, 30,132 were employed on permanent basis while 18,804 RNs were
employed on temporary terms Carson et al. (2017). On the other hand Balasubramanian et al.
(2017) explain that medicine employed 33,675 migrant professionals, while dentistry, pharmacy
and psychotherapy offered employment for 2,467, 2,251 and 1,843 migrants in this period.

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Figure 1: Trend of healthcare workforce migration in Australia. Soource: Wakerman et al.
(2017)
The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that the levels of migration of healthcare
workforces across the globe have seen a steady increase. However, Botfield, Newman, and Zwi
(2017) revealed that even with such increments, economies such as Australia are faced with
persistent shortage in the supply of qualified healthcare practitioners in its outer-metropolitan
and rural locations. Carson et al. (2017) demystified that the current situation is compounded by
the prevailing operational trends that are aimed at reducing the number of work hours of
workforces with increasing demand for healthcare services due to the aging population and
workforce. Reid et al. (2018) explained that Health Workforce Australia, an institution faced
with the obligation of coordinating the country’s workforce estimated that the nation will face a
shortage of about 110,000 nurses and 3,000 doctors by 2025. Further, the researchers explained
that such challenges will be coupled with the prevailing mal-distribution trends witnessed by the
country’s healthcare workforce.
To curb such inconsistencies, the Australian government resorted to the recruitment of
international graduates in medical fields. Balasubramanian et al. (2016) explain that through the
Department of Health and Ageing, the Australian government adopted policy legislations aimed
at funding rural workforce institutions to recruit and encourage foreign medical graduates to
offer their services in the country’s rural areas. According to Negin et al. (2016), the overseas
trained practitioners were only accorded added privileges such as access to national insurance
provision if they accepted to offer their services in certain defined “Districts of Workforce
Shortage”. Reid et al. (2018) estimated that international healthcare graduates comprise about

HEALTH WORK FORCE PLANNING IN AUSTRALIA 5
40% of the Australian medical workforce and 47% of the general practitioners in rural and
remote regions.
Australian Government Policies on International Health Worker Immigration
The Australian government has institutionalized a wider range of policy and regulatory
frameworks aimed at offering migrant healthcare workforces with ample opportunities to offer
their services. According to Adamson, Cortis, Brennan, & Charlesworth (2017), most of the
Australian Government’s health workforce initiatives are put in place by the country’s Health
Workforce Division (HWD). The researchers explained that the HWD works with the mission
of developing and implementing policies, regulations and innovative strategies aimed at
enhancing the standards, capacity, and mix if the country’s health personnel.
In 2012, the HWD fostered the processes of initiating a policy that led to the inception of
the Health Workforce Fund. According to Foo, Storr, and Maloney (2017), the Health Workforce
Fund offered flexible fiscal aids for Health and Ageing portfolio. The researchers explain that the
HWD policies are aimed at increasing the population of healthcare professionals offering their
services in rural and remote parts of the country. Reid et al. (2018) demystified that the
government has invested over $4 billion in the HWF policy as a way of strengthening its
capacity to offer Australians with a strengthened healthcare workforce through the Department
of Health. The policy aims at:
 Boosting the rates of supply of personnel in the country’s healthcare sector. Adamson et
al. (2017) reveal that the HWF foresees this initiative by ensuring that the distribution of
workforces in terms of geographical considerations and types of social amenities offered
is overboard by recruiting and retaining experienced healthcare migrants.

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 Ensuring a qualified and capable medical workforce by ensuring that migrant medical
professionals meet the required national standards through proper registration, training
accreditation.
 Addressing the ever-increasing shortages of healthcare workforces in the rural, regional
and remote areas of Australia. Wakerman et al. (2017) explained that the Australian
government ensures that this objective is adequately met by attracting migrant medical
personnel through the institutionalization of attractive programs and better targeting for
the incentives accorded among these personnel.
In 2009, the Australian government adopted a policy aimed at fostering the privatization
of skilled migrants such as healthcare personnel. According to Wakerman et al. (2017), the
government made the decision of sponsoring about 70% of the country’s temporary and
permanent labor migrants in the areas of practice that depicted massive deficits in the supply of
workforces. As a consequence, the Australian government made it a policy and regulatory
requirement for its prospective skilled migrants to make online applications by submitting an
online “Expression of Interest” with support of personal data, English ability and affirmation
that the area of practice is in line with the requirements of the Australia’s Skilled Occupation
List. The process prioritizes migrant medical professionals whose occupational backgrounds are
not flawed.
In 2005, the Government of Australia institutionalized a regulatory policy framework
aimed at increasing the levels of preference for temporary migrants as opposed to permanent
flows. Such a policy led to an increase in the number of migrants acquiring employment
opportunities. In 2013 alone, 22,110 migrants were employed through the 457 visa opening.
Such an opening led to the recruitment of 8500 nurses, 9200 doctors, and about 350 dentists.

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(ref10 ) explain that such a trend allowed the government to constrain migrant workforces in the
healthcare sector as one of the primary conditions for visa entry.
Historical Reasons
The increasing demand for migrant healthcare professionals in the Australian landscape
is attributed to the previous higher demands of personnel in this sector and higher employment
rates. On the other hand, Foo, Storr, and Maloney (2017) attributed such an increment to the
ageing Australian population and higher exit rates of medical practitioners due to retirement. The
researchers further explain that the country’s professionals in the medical sector have a shorter
length of stay considering the fact that most of them are accorded employment opportunities on
temporary terms. According to Adamson et al. (2017), Australia faced the burden of high
dependency in its intensive patient care section as well as increased number of nursing hours for
an individual patient. As a consequence, the government resorts to the recruitment of migrant
healthcare workforces to tackle the existing inconsistencies.
Sustainability of Current Policies
While the Australian government has made the efforts of acquiring migrant healthcare
professionals to fill the existing workforce gaps, the policies put in place as unsustainable.
Balasubramanian et al. (2016) explained that the government continues to face persistent
challenges in terms of availability and supply of these professionals despite the lucrative nature
of the terms, conditions and incentives offered. Balasubramanian et al. (2017) attributed such a
position to the fact that the largest part of Australian healthcare workforces comprises of people
that are about to retire. The researchers reveal that by 2020, over 90,000 healthcare professionals
will reach their age of retiring. Despite the workforce challenges, Foo, Storr, and Maloney
(2017) demystified that the nursing and healthcare education system in Australia is faced with

HEALTH WORK FORCE PLANNING IN AUSTRALIA 8
high rates of student attrition as its major challenge. The researchers report that about 30% of the
scholars who enroll for these courses fail to complete.
To curb the aforementioned workforce challenges, the Australian Government is faced
with the obligation of increasing its intake of students who are in need of pursuing courses such
as nursing and medicine in local institutions. On the other hand, the government needs to
reinforce the “Back to Nursing and Re-Connect” initiative that has been of critical essence in
encouraging the nurses who are not practicing to return by increasing the levels of economic
incentives offered.
In conclusion, Australia depicts heavy reliance of internationally recruited medical
professionals particularly in its rural and remote regions. The current situation is compounded by
the prevailing operational trends that are aimed at reducing the number of work hours of
workforces with increasing demand for healthcare services due to the aging population and
workforce. Such an increment is attributed to the ageing Australian population and higher exit
rates of medical practitioners due to retirement. The Australian government has institutionalized
a wider range of policy and regulatory frameworks aimed at offering migrant healthcare
workforces with ample opportunities to offer their services. For instance, the Australian
government adopted a policy aimed at fostering the privatization of skilled migrants such as
healthcare personnel. Further, the government invested over $4 billion in the HWF policy as a
way of strengthening its capacity to offer Australians with a strengthened healthcare workforce
through the Department of Health. To curb the aforementioned workforce challenges, the
Australian Government is faced with the obligation of increasing its intake of students who are in
need of pursuing courses such as nursing and medicine in local institutions.

HEALTH WORK FORCE PLANNING IN AUSTRALIA 9
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