Health Workforce Planning: A Comparison of Australia and Philippines

Running head: Health workforce planning

Health workforce planning 1
Executive Summary
The National Health Workforce Planning in Australia has been a mixed system comprising of
universal health care by the public sector and the private providers of insurance services. Most of
the health care in Australia is provided by the hospitals and primary health care while the
residual services are provided by the private sector i.e. private hospitals, allied health care
facilities such as physiotherapy and dental.
Medicare is the universal health care system of Australia which is the main scheme which
provide subsidizes regarding the medical costs to the citizens of Australia. The various
organizations carry out the planning of the national health workforce and the challenges
confronted by them are well documented. It comprises of ageing population and increased
expectations of the service delivery and demand for health services. The national health agenda
of Australia also comprises of the reinforcement of national workforce planning. So, in this
report, the national health workforce plans of Australia and Philippines shall be compared and
contrasted to address the critical issues faced by both the countries. Furthermore, as per the
framework provided by WHO, it shall be determined whether each of the countries are
addressing the WHO preferences in their workforce plans.

Health workforce planning 2
Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Environmental Scan of the health workforce of the two countries.............................................................3
Analysis of the data profile of the health workforce for each country........................................................5
Identification of the critical issues to be addressed in each country...........................................................6
Application of the WHO priorities in the national workforce planning of both the countries using the
recommendations developed by WHO.......................................................................................................7
References.................................................................................................................................................10

Health workforce planning 3
Introduction
In order to develop a health workforce which can offer primary to tertiary sector services needs a
well-established infrastructure for governance. In this regard proper assessment of the health
workforce, development of the policy, regulating and supervising requires dialogue amongst the
stakeholders ranging from government to non-government partners who are dedicated to create a
responsive and sustainable workforce.
In this regard, WHO responses to the challenges by providing a range of policies and strategies
to its member states in the West Pacific Region for developing a workforce which is competent,
responsive, sufficiently supported and to meet the health needs of the population. The strategy
comprises of five objectives which focus around three areas viz. development, positioning ,
supply and retaining of an effective and efficient workforce .Governance and management of the
workforce and thirdly , developing a workforce which is responsive to the health needs and
demands of the population residing in those countries (World Health Organization ,2013).
So, in this report, the health workforce plans of Australia and Philippines would be compared
and contrasted to analyze the strategies adopted by both the countries in formation of their health
workforces. For this purpose, the environmental scan of the health workforce of both the
countries would be evaluated through assessing the policy and planning documents of both the
countries. The data profile of each country would be evaluated using the data provided by WHO
in this context. On the basis of the evaluation, the issues to be addressed in each country would
be identified and using the framework of recommendations, it would be determined if each of
them is addressing and adopting the priorities developed by WHO in their health workforce
plans.
The purpose of comparing the health workforce planning of Australia and Philippines is that the
former belongs to the high income group whereas the latter belongs to the lower middle income
group. It will assist in comparing the health workforce strategies adopted by both the countries
and the disparities of distribution of the health workforce facilities especially in the lower middle
income group countries in particular. It will also assist in finding solutions to fill the gaps in the
supply and demand of the health workforce in both the countries.