Proposal for national workforce strategy

CHA takes workforce commission plan to the National Health and Hospital Reform Commission.

A leading not-for-profit health and aged care provider has proposed the establishment of a National Health Workforce Commission (NHWC).

Catholic Health Australia (CHA) presented the idea to a meeting of the National Health and Hospital Reform Commission earlier this month.

The CHA proposal is seeking to combine the efforts of all governments across Australia to identify workforce shortages and establish national programs to address them.

It comes on the back of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s ‘Australia’s Health 2008’ report which estimated a shortage of up to 13,000 nurses by 2010.

CHA CEO, Martin Laverty said current attempts to boost the health workforce have been uncoordinated and unsuccessful.

“The reason the good intentions of different governments across the country have not solved workforce issues is two fold,” he said.

“First, the health workforce crisis is a global challenge. Second, Australian efforts to date have been too fragmented.”

“Establishing a NHWC, involving all governments and health industry participants will put a new energy into growing our health care workforce,” said Mr Laverty.

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