The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) welcomes the release of volumes 1 and 2 of the Health Workforce 2025 report, highlighting the urgent need to address workforce shortages to ensure Australians continue to receive high quality, accessible care into the future.
The report identifies a number of issues relating to workforce supply, demand, training and distribution, which the College agrees require immediate attention to secure an affordable and sustainable health workforce for Australia.
Professor Claire Jackson, RACGP President, said while the report makes headway into the gigantic task of achieving self-sufficiency in health workforce supply, the College is keen to see further detail as to how workforce retention and distribution strategies would be achieved.
“The need for robust solutions as to how workforce retention strategies will work on ground is paramount,” Professor Jackson said.
“The College has consistently called for greater recognition and reward of GPs’ skills in order to retain GPs and general practice teams at the heart of primary healthcare in Australia.”
Greater investment into general practice infrastructure, the Medicare Benefits Schedule, and rural and remote practice incentives, were just some of the key factors the College sees as essential to retaining a strong primary healthcare workforce.
The RACGP also remains concerned that patient safety and quality of care could be compromised, should options to address workforce shortages such as expanded task substitution, non-medical prescribing and reduced training times progress without consideration of patient safety, quality of care, and clear governance systems.
“The College is a strong supporter of collaborative arrangements leading to improved patient outcomes, however we are adamant that GPs must retain the central role in order to facilitate the delivery of safe, efficient, coordinated, and comprehensive general practice and primary healthcare,” Professor Jackson said.
The RACGP will continue to work with Health Workforce Australia and key stakeholders to ensure GPs and general practice teams have input into future developments of the plan, as the Health Workforce 2025 analysis continues.