Health Workforce Planning

This report discusses the justification and relevance of incorporating overseas medical professionals into medical facilities in Australia. It also explores the background and sustainability of the Australian government's healthcare policy. Recommendations are provided to improve the efficiency of the healthcare policy framework.

Running Head: HEALTH WORKFORCE PLANNING
HEALTH WORKFORCE PLANNING
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Executive summary
The Australian healthcare system requires the migrant medical workers due to huge shortage of
medical practitioners within the country. In this regard, the profession of the migrant health
workers is associated with the immigration policy of the Australian government. Based on this
perception, this report aims to understand the justification and relevance behind incorporating
overseas medical professionals into medical facilities in Australia. Besides this, the background
of the practice and the sustainability of the Australian government is also discussed in the report
in order to understand the efficacy of such policy making. Finally, some recommendations are
mentioned that will facilitate more efficiency in the healthcare policy framework of the
Australian government.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
Australia on international health worker immigration.................................................................3
Government policies....................................................................................................................4
Historical development................................................................................................................6
Sustainability of the current policies...........................................................................................6
Recommendations............................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
Reference.........................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
Acute shortage in the healthcare workforce creates a severe threat to the global healthcare
initiatives. As per the WHO report the growing healthcare issues elevates the number of health
workers where 2.4 million physician, nurses and midwives are needed across the world. One of
the major reason behind this uneven distribution of health workers is due to the infrastructure,
economy and effective institutions. In this regard, in many countries the domestic workforce
supply is not enough to the deal with the required number of health workers. As a result of that
depending on the health worker immigration is considered to be an important factor for the
counties. In fact, it is essential to follow the international regulations and procuring better
national policy so that the immigrant social workers feel no difference to practice in abroad. In
fact, it is also beneficial for them to focus on the medical practices also.
In this context, this report will formulate an in-depth discussion over the practice of
health worker immigration practice in Australia. Moreover, the historical development and the
government policies are also incorporated in the study with an analysis on the sustainability of
the current policies.
Discussion
Australia on international health worker immigration
The Australian Healthcare Sector is highly vulnerably specifically in the outer
metropolitan and rural sectors. There are three key factors that are creating effective means to
incorporate more healthcare workers in order to cope with the growing need of the medical
practitioners. Firstly, it can be stated that the significant increase in the domestic medical

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facilities leads to growing need of the health workers. Secondly, the demographic considerations
also play significant role in order to create a demand for health workers. As per the report of
aihw.gov.au (2016) it can be derived that huge number of doctors and medical practitioners will
retire within 2025. Therefore, a huge vacancy will be created that will be filled up with new and
skilled healthcare practitioners. The government report stated that there is huge vacancy in the
medical workers as only 392 full time practitioners per 100,000 populations were there according
to the 2015 report (aihw.gov.au 2016). Moreover, the national supply of medical workers is not
adequate enough to deal with this dire situation. Thirdly, lack of coordination across the medical
training pipeline between the government and the universities and medical colleges is a major
cause to dismantle the supply of national healthcare practitioners. Individual priorities and
decision making obscures the path of national need and as a result of that the need for migrant
medical workers is becoming a significant urge for the Australian government.
Among the 70,231c medical practitioners in Australia, there are only 47.3% were born in
Australia and among the midwifery and nursing professionals 66.8% were Australia-born. It
proved that the prevalence of migrant health workers is highly practiced in Australia. Most of the
significant countries like India, Nepal, Philippines and Zimbabwe provide medical professionals
and nursing professionals (doctorconnect.gov.au, 2019). It is also a profitable business for the
government as nearly US$1.7 billion has been saved by the government in medical education
due to the coming of migrant medical workers.
Government policies
For the migrant doctors, Australian government endorses the temporary visa and
permanent visa. In this regard, there are two determinants. Firstly, doctors with primary medical
qualification in a country other than Australia and doctors who receive medical qualification

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certificate in Australia but do not have permanent residents can apply for visas. In this regard, the
government also mentions the skill recognition framework where the Overseas Trained Doctors
(OTDs) have to go through one of the three mentioned pathways such as competent authority
pathway, standard pathway and the specialist pathway (Mason, 2013). Competent authority
pathway is focused on the overseas trained non-specialist or general practitioners. They have to
pass the recognised examination or training conducted by the Medical Board of Australia
(MBA). Besides this, the OTDs can apply directly to the MBA for provisional registration. The
Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) and MBA are the respective bodies
to take the responsibility of assessing the qualification and ability of the OTDs (Negin, Rozea,
Cloyd & Martiniuk, 2013).
On the other hand, the standard pathway is dealing with the OTDs who are seeking
general registration to MBA. This pathway is particularly set for the medical practitioners who
are not eligible for Competent Authority Pathway. There are two processes that the medical
practitioners can opt for. The AMC examination will focus on the clinical examinations for non-
special applicants (Sanggaran, Haire, & Zion, 2016). Besides this, the workplace based
assessment is dealt with assessing the clinical skills and knowledge of the OTDs. Australian
Medical Council is fully authorised to conduct the exams and evaluating the scores of the OTDs
as well. Furthermore, there is also a specialist pathway where the overseas trained specialists can
apply for assessment of comparability to the standard of a specialist trained in Australia and
native country (Sherrell, 2019). English language proficiency is also required for the OTDs and
international proficiency tests like TOEFL and IELTS are also important for the OTDs to pass.

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Historical development
Historically, Australia offers high exposure to the medical facilities and infrastructural
development. The government puts great emphasis on developing better healthcare facilities for
all the citizens of the country. However, due to lack of population and the educational
qualification there was a shortage of trained and skilled medical practitioners inside the country.
The population is growing steadfastly since the migration of the White settlers in 1788 (O’Brien
& Phillips, 2015). Since then migration is a continuous process for the country and bring a
hybrid culture and values that influence the government policies as well. This population
booming was one of the major factors that pushed the government to enrol more medical
practitioners (theconversation.com, 2019). Nonetheless, there was shortage of skilled medical
practitioners that facilitated huge pressure on them. In this context, enrolling the migrant trained
medical professionals, midwifery and nurses has become an important aspect for the government
to implement as soon as possible.
Sustainability of the current policies
The current policy of the Australian government is primarily focused on two interlinked
subjects. Firstly, the government intends to establish a better healthcare facility for the people.
Therefore, generating more opportunities for the medical practitioners will foster a better
occupational environment for the doctors, midwifery and nurses to start their profession in
Australia (Hawthorne, 2014). As a matter of fact, the migrant workers have to consider the
medical standards in Australia. The immigration body also helps them to guide in this regard.
The Australian Immigration Centre is carried out a detailed qualification and skill tests for the
overseas applicants and prepare them to adjust with the existing medical standard in Australia.

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On the other hand, through the migrant healthcare workers Australian government is also
willing to curb down expenses in medical training and education. Already there are huge amount
of money contributed and assigned for the development of the existing healthcare education.
Therefore, it will be a problem for the government to bear more expenses in the medical training
facilities (Ho & Chiang, 2015). Henceforth, the migrant medical practitioners facilitate a
strategic advantage for Australian government to save huge amount of expenses and make the
healthcare standard intact with the help of international medical knowledge tests and skill
assessment.
Recommendations
There are some specific recommendations for the government policy on migrant
healthcare workers.
 Health education training for the migrant midwifery and nurses should be implemented in
order to develop a better healthcare system. It will be less expensive and the Australian
medical colleges and universities should take responsible measures for the training and
skill development of the midwifery and nursing.
 On the other hand, providing scholarships for the migrant practitioners will enhance the
attractiveness in the healthcare system. The scholarships will be provided based on the
medical exam performance. It will also help the government to attract skilled and
knowledgeable immigrant medical practitioners and encourage them to opt for medical
healthcare profession in Australia.
 Besides this, a balance between the migrant practitioners and the national health workers
should be balanced so that both parties can get a chance to prove themselves. In this

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regard, a medical workforce shortage identification system can be implemented which
will evaluate the required number of medical practitioners and divide it among the
national and overseas medical professionals. In fact, this practice can bring transparency
into the entire medical recruitment system and forge a bias-free environment.
Conclusion
From the above point of view, it can be stated that the discussion effectively evaluate the
existing government policy framework for the migrant medical practitioners. The need for
recruiting more migrant medical workers is clearly projected in the discussion and the
government measures is rightly evaluated so that a link between the healthcare management
system and the motive of appointing more migrant medical workers can be understood in an in-
depth manner. In addition to this, the efficacy of the sustainability for the migrant medical
workers is also analysed so that it can portray the future of the government initiatives. Therefore,
it can be concluded that the report is highly relevant and pragmatic enough to understand the
aims and objectives of the Australian government to bring more migrant medical workers into
the healthcare system.

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Reference
aihw.gov.au. (2016). Medical practitioners workforce. Retrieved from
https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/workforce/medical-practitioners-workforce-2015/
contents/how-many-medical-practitioners-are-there
aihw.gov.au. (2016). Nursing and midwifery workforce. Retrieved from
https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/workforce/nursing-and-midwifery-workforce-
2015/contents/who-are-nurses-and-midwives
doctorconnect.gov.au. (2019). DoctorConnect - Skills recognition. Retrieved from
http://www.doctorconnect.gov.au/internet/otd/publishing.nsf/Content/
skillsRecognition
Hawthorne, L. (2014). A comparison of skilled migration policy: Australia, Canada and New
Zealand. Canada and New Zealand (October 16, 2014). Retrieved from
http://sites.nationalacademies.org/cs/groups/pgasite/documents/webpage/
pga_152512.pdf
Ho, K. H., & Chiang, V. C. (2015). A meta‐ethnography of the acculturation and
socialization experiences of migrant care workers. Journal of advanced
nursing, 71(2), 237-254. Retrieved from
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jan.12506
Mason, J. (2013). Review of Australian Government Health Workforce Programs. Retrieved
from
https://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/D26858F4B68834E

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ACA257BF0001A8DDC/$File/Review%20of%20Health%20Workforce
%20programs.pdf
Negin, J., Rozea, A., Cloyd, B., & Martiniuk, A. (2013). Foreign-born health workers in
Australia: an analysis of census data. Retrieved from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3882294/
O’Brien, P., & Phillips, M. (2015). Health care justice for temporary migrant workers on 457
visas in Australia: A case study of internationally qualified nurses. Journal of law and
medicine, 22(3). Retried from
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57f6b63108ae280dd0bb32f1.pdf
Sanggaran, J., Haire, B., & Zion, D. (2016). The Health Care Consequences Of Australian
Immigration Policies. Retrieved from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4755566/
Sherrell, H. (2019). Immigration – Parliament of Australia. Retrieved from
https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/
Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/BudgetReview201819/Immigration
theconversation.com. (2017). Migrants are healthier than the average Australian, so they can't
be a burden on the health system. Retrieved from
https://theconversation.com/migrants-are-healthier-than-the-average-australian-so-
they-cant-be-a-burden-on-the-health-system-79753