Australia needs an additional 35,000 aged care workers a year. While skilled migration can play a role, it’s unlikely to be enough to fix the immediate or long-term workforce shortages.
Hospitals are struggling, with ambulances ramping outside emergency departments and patients facing long waits for care. But doing more of the same won’t fix the problem.
While demand for subsidised services is high and rising, many parts of the system need improvement. The federal budget can’t solve these problems by placing the entire burden on taxpayers.
Around 70% of front-line health workers said they were exhausted in 2020. With COVID hospitalisations expected to rise in coming weeks, the pressure is about to get a whole lot worse.
Many doctors and healthcare staff feel the need to practice in richer countries that offer a more stable politics, better education and opportunities for their families.
Julien Harneis
Mark Shrime, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences
India, Nigeria, Pakistan and South Africa lose thousands of trained doctors each year, lured away to work in richer countries – at great cost to their nation’s healthcare systems.
Health education curriculums need to specifically prepare healthcare professionals to respond to a pandemic when it comes to aspects like infection control, aged care and mental health.
Nurses and midwives can make a significant impact in managing and preventing the leading causes of death.
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Adequate numbers of healthy and motivated health professionals are also critical to governments’ effective responses to public health emergencies such as COVID-19.
Rural healthcare services are best supported by midlevel workers.
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Midlevel health workers can provide diagnostic and therapeutic services with lower entry qualification requirements and shorter training periods than doctors.
The royal commission has scrutinised aged care staffing.
From shutterstock.com
Nurses and midwives are among society’s most highly valued professionals. But a disturbing national picture is emerging of escalating levels of over-work and burnout.
Personal care attendants are responsible for residents’ personal hygiene – they’re not trained to undertake more complex assessments.
Reuters/Christian Hartmann
Nursing home providers looking to cut costs are bypassing registered nurses and employing less-skilled personal care attendants (PCAs) who aren’t trained for the job.
When doctors aren’t engaged, things can go tragically wrong.
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Highly engaged doctors do much better on a wide range of important measures, from clinical performance, financial management and safety indicators to patient experience and overall quality standards.
While medical schools have equal numbers of men and women, few female doctors go on to become surgeons.
from www.shutterstock.com.au