Category Archives: health workforce

Some solutions to health workforce shortages

May 4, 2012 – 11:58 am

Health Workforce Australia recently released the first two volumes of its three-volume report, Health Workforce 2025, which provides medium to long-term national workforce planning projections for doctors, nurses and midwives up to 2025. The main contribution of the report, according to Professor Richard Murray, President of the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine, is to show that ‘more-of-the-same’ [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in health and medical education, health financing and costs, health reform, rural and remote health | Tagged , , | Comments (6)

Lack of access to dental care is putting children in hospital and entrenching disadvantage

April 19, 2012 – 8:51 pm

Should you think this recent post was a little harsh, in condemning the obfuscation and lack of clarity in many health communications, try having a read of this recent report produced by the Department of Health and Ageing and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Titled Dental health of Indigenous children in the Northern [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in child health, Health inequalities, Indigenous health, rural and remote health, social determinants of health | Tagged , , , , | Comments (1)

Tackling some of the tribal divisions within health

March 29, 2012 – 1:38 pm

Attending recent conferences, I was struck by two comments which, in their own ways, say much about the silos and divisions within the health sector. During a session where GP registrars were brainstorming ideas for improving the image of general practice, someone suggested that specialists should be re-named “partialists”, as a way of highlighting the [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in general practice, health and medical education, health reform, quality and safety of health care | Tagged , , , | Comments (2)

How to improve oral health in rural and remote areas

March 8, 2012 – 8:13 pm

Efforts to improve oral health in the bush should learn from the history of rural medical workforce initiatives, suggests Gordon Gregory, executive director of the National Rural Health Alliance. And this should happen quickly – in time for the forthcoming Federal Budget to start work on improving the availability of an oral health workforce in [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in dental care, Health inequalities, rural and remote health | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Restructuring of Queensland Health: a step in the right direction

February 16, 2012 – 10:43 am

For those wondering what is happening in the world of Queensland health reform, here (PDF alert) is a report from KPMG, outlining the planned restructure of Queensland Health. (This Courier-Mail report suggests, however, that the future of the reforms is uncertain in view of next month’s election, with the Opposition opposing the restructuring). A brief [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in health reform, Medicare Locals | Tagged , , , | Comments (1)

What to do about the problems caused by super specialisation in medicine?

February 10, 2012 – 8:03 pm

Among the many competing principles in healthcare delivery and policy are the notions of providing the ‘best possible care for any individual’ versus ‘doing the best for the most at a population level’. Tied up with this are questions of how to achieve the fairest distribution of healthcare resources, and of health. On such themes, [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in general practice, health reform, quality and safety of health care | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Beyond band-aids: Medicare needs structural reform

January 19, 2012 – 3:46 pm

The crew at The Medical Journal of Australia must be feeling rather pleased this week by the publicity and debate generated via this week’s edition, particularly the articles on Medicare by Dr Tony Webber and on corporatisation of medicine by Ray Moynihan. Below is some wider commentary, reproduced from The Conversation, with articles from: • [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in Australian Medical Association, dental care, general practice, health reform, health regulation, Journal articles, primary health care, The Conversation | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (2)

A new Croakey project: Naked Doctor, profiling overdiagnosis and overtreatment

January 16, 2012 – 4:45 pm

Up to $3 billion of public money is wasted each year under Medicare, according to estimates by Dr Tony Webber, who headed the Professional Services Review for more than six years. His article in today’s Medical Journal of Australia – which has drawn widespread media coverage – argues that poor policy (such as the Medicare [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in health reform, health regulation, Journal articles, Naked Doctor | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (15)

Doctors have good reasons for leaving South Africa

January 16, 2012 – 1:23 pm

Professor Gavin Mooney’s recent article, calling for Australia to stop “stealing” health professionals from South Africa, generated a strong response (see comments at bottom of his post). Dr Peter Arnold, author of this book about South African doctors who have migrated to Australia, continues the discussion below. *** Why South African doctors emigrate Peter Arnold [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in global health, Health inequalities | Tagged , , | Comments (1)

A call for Australia to stop “stealing” health professionals from South Africa

January 11, 2012 – 3:11 pm

Health economist Professor Gavin Mooney has had a longstanding concern about the flow of health professionals from poor to wealthy countries. In the article below, he proposes a plan for how Australia might address its responsibilities to countries like South Africa. Instead of the “unethical” practice of draining poor countries of health professionals, we should [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in global health, Health inequalities | Tagged , , , | Comments (17)