Report for the Minister for Regional Health, Regional Communications and Local Government on the improvement of access, quality and distribution of allied health services in regional, rural and remote Australia

Report for the Minister for Regional Health, Regional Communications and Local Government on the improvement of access, quality and distribution of allied health services in regional, rural and remote Australia Report

• Author(s): National Rural Health Commissioner,
• Published: 2020
• Publisher: Department of Health

Link to resource Report broken link

Abstract: Allied health professionals are essential to the physical, social and psychological wellbeing of people living in rural and remote Australia. They are integral to the care of rural and remote communities, whose capacity to achieve optimal health outcomes is limited by inequitable access to appropriate health services. They are also integral to the economic development of rural and remote populations particularly in relation to workforce participation and educational outcomes. There is both an undersupply and a maldistribution of allied health services in rural and remote towns of less than 30,000 people that can be addressed by an integrated service and learning pathway linked to more and better structured jobs, greater participation of Indigenous Australians, improved access to workforce data and through national allied health leadership. In Australia, the allied health professions are characterised by a diverse mix of regulated and self-regulated disciplines. Allied health professionals work across a variety of sectors including primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary health care, aged care, mental health, disability, justice, alcohol and other drugs, early childhood and education. In rural and remote settings, they often work in areas of market failure where service delivery is fragmented and vulnerable to short-term contracts and disparate funding arrangements. Beginning in December 2018, the National Rural Health Commissioner (the Commissioner) has consulted with the allied health sector to develop a set of recommendations aimed at improving the quality of services, and equitable access to and distribution of the regional, rural and remote allied health workforce. While recognising there is unmet need for allied health services across all of regional, rural and remote Australia, the particular focus of the Commissioner’s work has been on improving access to services for populations living in Modified Monash Model 4-7, where the maldistribution is most pernicious. The Commissioner’s work has been framed by the concept of the ‘demographic dividend’ – that an investment in the health of populations leads to improved economic outcomes that produce benefits not only at a local or regional level but at a national level as well.

• Urls: https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2021/04/final-report-improvement-of-access-quality-and-distribution-of-allied-health-services-in-regional-rural-and-remote-australia.pdf
• Publisher Location: Canberra