Catholic Health calls for a national workforce strategy for health and aged care
Catholic Health Australia (CHA), has proposed the establishment of a National Health Workforce Commission (NHWC), to a meeting of the National Health and Hospital Reform Commission.
The CHA seeks 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 chief executive officer (ceo), Martin Laverty, said current attempts to boost the health workforce have been uncoordinated and unsuccessful.
He said the health workforce crisis is a global challenge, and to date Australian efforts 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.
