Comparison of Health Workforce between Australia and Malaysia

Running head: HEALTH WORKFORCE PLANNING
Comparison of health workforce between two countries
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1HEALTH WORKFORCE PLANNING
Executive summary
Health human resources refer to all people who are involved in actions, the primary objective
of which is to enhance the overall health of the community. Thus, health human resources are
recognized as one of the major building blocks of a health care system. Health workforce in
most countries include physicians, midwives, nursing professionals, allied health
professionals, community health workers, healthcare providers, and social health workers.
Thus, human health resource deals with several issues such as, development, planning,
retention, management, and research on healthcare. Health organisations have estimated a
shortage of physicians, nurses and midwives worldwide. This shortage is found to be most
severe in low and middle income countries. The condition is commonly referred to as health
workforce crisis and is the direct result of several decades of underinvestment and low
funding in education of healthcare workers, poor wages, lack of training and education, and
poor health management. These directly contribute to an increase in the number of unskilled
healthcare professionals in the nation. The report will illustrate the different health workforce
plans of Australia and Malaysia and will make a thorough comparison of the health
workforce numbers in the two regions. This will be followed by identification of the critical
issues that are prevalent in the aforementioned regions.

2HEALTH WORKFORCE PLANNING
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Rationale for selecting the country............................................................................................3
Environmental scan....................................................................................................................4
Environmental scan for the health workforce of Australia and Malaysia..................................4
Health workforce profile data....................................................................................................6
Identification of the critical issues...........................................................................................11
Recommendation......................................................................................................................13
Conclusion................................................................................................................................15
References................................................................................................................................16

3HEALTH WORKFORCE PLANNING
Introduction
Health workforce or health human resources (HHR), are defined as the professionals
whose task is focused on protecting and improving the health of the entire community. The
term ‘workforce’ aptly reflects the increased number and expanded roles of people in
different health professions. These generally include presence of diverse clinical and non-
clinical professionals who are able to implement appropriate public and individual health
interventions (WHO, 2018). In other words, the health workforce has been recognised as an
essential component for proper performance and functioning of labour-intensive healthcare
systems. The healthcare workers are not only working professionals. They are considered
integral parts of the functioning of healthcare teams, where each member professional
contributes a plethora of clinical skills and perform several functions (Lopes, Almeida &
Almada-Lobo, 2015). However, some countries have been identified to suffer from a
shortage of health workers, owing to their reluctance in developing effective strategic plans
and HHR policies that are imperative for guiding and building the human infrastructure
required for appropriate functioning of the health systems (Aluttis, Bishaw & Frank, 2014).
The report will elaborate on the national health workforce planning of Malaysia (WHO
Western Pacific Region) and compare it with that of Australia.
Rationale for selecting the country
Health improvement programmes and human capital are identified of central
importance for the economic growth and sustainable development of any country. Drastic
changes have been found in the healthcare system of Malaysia from the traditional remedies,
with the aim of meeting the health preferences and needs of the population. Major
reorganization have been observed in the healthcare services of the country, since its
independence in 1957. One of the first reorganization of public primary healthcare services