KEEP IN TOUCH
(07) 3105 7800
Turrbal and Jagera Country
Level 4, 348 Edward Street
Brisbane QLD 4000
Health Workforce Queensland undertakes an annual primary care Health Workforce Needs Assessment (HWNA) for remote, rural and regional areas of Queensland. This 2022 report provides an update of current and emerging issues as well as profession specific summaries. The report also identifies priority Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2) locations based on a nationally consistent quantitative methodology and indicates areas of possible current and/or ongoing workforce need.
Access to health workforce in remote and rural communities continues to remain one of the greatest barriers in addressing health need in Queensland, particularly in the primary health care setting. At the heart of primary care in remote and rural communities in Queensland is general practice. Our Issue in Focus topic for this year is practice sustainability and includes several questions to gauge the perceptions of practitioners and managers regarding issues that impact the sustainability and viability of their primary health care practices. Findings reinforce that general practice is very fragile with key themes highlighting challenges in workforce, funding and incentives, support, and infrastructure.
The report outlines numerous national and state reviews, reports and strategies that are currently looking at rural general practice and other increasing pressures on the health system. Primary care workforce data for general practitioners, allied health professionals, nurses and midwives, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workers/Practitioners are also described through the most recent release of the 2020 National Health Workforce Dataset and Health Workforce Queensland’s own database. Of note, between 2019 and 2020 there was an increase of 40 registered practitioners who identified as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin.
You can view the 2021 Health Workforce Needs Assessment below.
