Rural Health Workforce Strategy

On 30 April 2008, the report on Audit of Health Workforce in Rural and Regional Australia was released. The audit found that the supply of health professionals is not sufficient to meet current needs and the supply of health professionals in many rural and regional areas is low to very poor. The findings of the Audit can be found on the Department of Health and Ageing website at Report on the Audit of Health Workforce in Rural and Regional Australia

As a result of the audit, the Minister for Health and Ageing, the Hon Nicola Roxon MP, asked the Department to review the Commonwealth funded rural health programs and the geographic classification systems that determine the eligibility for rural health program funding. In response to the review, the Government announced the Rural Health Workforce Strategy. The major focus of this initiative includes:

• a $134.4 million package to improve rural and remote workforce shortages and better target existing incentives through the provision of additional financial and non-financial support for rural doctors;
• a new structure for rural and remote health programs, including program consolidation, to be introduced in conjunction with the Budget measures; and
• the progressive introduction of the Australian Standard Geographical Classification - Remoteness Areas (ASGC-RA) system to replace the outdated Rural, Remote and Metropolitan Areas (RRMA) classification system as the basis of funding rural health programs.

The Rural Health Workforce Strategy encompasses a number of initiatives that aim to better target workforce incentives to communities in greatest need. The reforms are based on:

• Scaling or gearing of incentives and return of service obligations to provide greatest benefits to the most remote communities where there is the greatest need; and
• Transition of program eligibility to the new ASGC-RA system.

The new ASGC-RA classification system is based on 2006 Census data and was developed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The use of ASGC-RA and the introduction of scaling will help ensure that workforce incentives and rural health programs are targeted to areas of need – ‘the more remote you go, the greater the reward’.

Scaling is an incentive applied to a range of existing programs that will commence from 1 July 2010. The concept of scaling means that benefits derived will be significantly greater for doctors that chose to live and work in more remote areas as described in the ASGC-RA system.