Future directions for New Zealand health workforce

HWAC - Future directions for New Zealand health workforce

27 August 2003

MEDIA STATEMENT

Future directions for New Zealand health workforce

The Health Workforce Advisory Committee (HWAC) says, in its latest advice presented to Health Minister Annette King today, that " simply doing more of the same is not an option" .

HWAC Chair, Professor Andrew Hornblow, says that fundamental rethinking about the culture of the health sector (" how it behaves and does its business" ) and the design and structure of both services and the health and disability workforce is needed to implement the Government’s Health, Disability, Primary Health Care, and Maori Health Strategies.

" Historically, workforce development has been focused around hospital-based medical specialties. This remains a crucial area of workforce development, but must be complemented by increased attention to workforce challenges in the delivery of public health, primary and community-based care if the sector is to respond effectively to emerging needs and trends, including a more strategic approach to prevention and early intervention."

HWAC’s latest report The New Zealand Health Workforce: Future Directions Recommendations to the Minister of Health 2003 gives a practical insight into the workforce challenges in the new primary health care environment that is emerging with the establishment of Primary Health Organisations (PHO).

HWAC says PHOs are likely to employ health practitioners from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds and with varying levels of relevant experience.

" The precise mix of disciplines is not as important as the combined knowledge, skills and attitudes of the group and the willingness and ability of members to work together as a team to achieve shared objectives and desired health outcomes. A broadly based whole systems approach is required and this is a huge change from the hierarchical, somewhat siloed system that has prevailed," says Professor Hornblow.

HWAC has made recommendations for health and disability workforce development in seven priority areas:
-the Primary Health Care Strategy
-healthy workplace environments
-health workforce education
-Maori health workforce development
-Pacific health workforce development
-the health and support workforce to better meet the needs of
disabled people
-health workforce research and evaluation capability.

" Our recommendations across the seven areas are not a pick-and-mix selection. There must be action in all of them for the sector to get traction on the outcomes it has set its sights on achieving. But the extensive consultations the committee undertook, including a summit in March attended by 150 representatives from the sector, indicated strong consensus about a commitment to address workforce development in a systematic, inclusive and evolving manner.

" In practical terms, implementing the recommendations will require strong leadership from District Health Boards (DHBs), which, in just two priority areas, will need to facilitate positive working relationships between different groups of health practitioners, and invest in healthy workplace initiatives that will contribute to the retention of health practitioners," says Professor Hornblow.

" HWAC does not support and is not recommending further radical or disruptive change. Rather it is recommending a strategically guided process of evolving change that enables the health sector and its workforce to constantly adapt to what is and will continue to be a challenging, exciting and ever changing health sector environment."

The recommendations included in the report have been developed in collaboration with DHBs, the Ministry of Health and health practitioners and their representatives. Initial implementation of some recommendations has begun.

Annette King says the latest document is the next step along the path to long-term health workforce development. " We now have agreed priorities to work towards. As I have said many times before, there is no quick fix to workforce issues, but we now know where we are heading.

" The HWAC recommendations cover a very wide agenda and the Government will provide extra funding to enable HWAC to expand its work in areas such as the medical workforce and Maori workforce development."

Questions and Answers

What are the Health Workforce Advisory Committee’s key tasks?

-To provide an independent assessment for the Minister of Health of current workforce capacity (a stocktake) and foreseeable workforce needs to meet the objectives of the New Zealand Health and Disability strategies

-Advise the Minister on national goals for the health workforce and recommend strategies to develop appropriate workforce capacity

-Facilitate co-operation between organisations involved in health workforce education and training to ensure a strategic approach to health workforce supply, demand and development

-Report on the effectiveness of recommended strategies and identify required changes

Who is on the Health Workforce Advisory Committee (HWAC)?

Professor Andrew Hornblow (chair), Karen Guilliland (deputy), Dr Ralph Wiles, Dr Clive Ross, Professor Colin Mantell, Mike Gourley, Dr George Salmond, Jane Lawless, Dr Margaret Southwick, and Ian Wilson.

What is the purpose of this report?

The purpose of this report is to distil the key issues related to workforce development, following an extensive engagement process with the health and disability sector. In conjunction with key messages, general philosophy, principles of change, and general considerations this report presents a set of recommendations to the Minister of Health organised in seven key priority areas for workforce development.

This report achieves a major milestone for HWAC and sets out priority areas in which health and disability workforce issues may be addressed to support sector development.

What are the key recommendations for early implementation

Implementation of all recommendations will take time as individual DHBs will have their own priorities and may already be taking action on some of these issues. Therefore, HWAC has identified eight key recommendations for early implementation.

HWAC recommends that:

1.1 To address the health workforce implications of the Primary Health Care Strategy the Ministry of Health:

1.1.1 requires DHBs to include the primary health care workforce in their workforce development plans by June 2005

1.1.2 promotes and appropriately resources collaborative workforce practice within the health and disability sector to achieve the goals of the Primary Health Care Strategy.

2.1 To progress the development of healthy workplace environments HWAC, in consultation with the Ministry of Health, DHBNZ, and professional bodies develop a set of national guidelines for implementation and monitoring of healthy workplace environments by June 2005.

3.1 To facilitate the evolution and further development of health workforce education the Ministry of Health, in collaboration with HWAC and DHBs:

3.1.1 review the strategic framework around the CTA funding role in health workforce training by June 2005

3.1.2 review the appropriateness of current postgraduate education frameworks and vocational training in order to meet the future workforce requirements and health needs of New Zealanders by 2005

3.1.3 work with TEC to ensure that health education courses meet the needs of the health and disability sector.

4.1 To progress Mâori health workforce development the Minister of Health establishes a national Mâori health workforce development function in the form of a specialist advisory group to HWAC.

4.2 To progress Mâori health workforce development DHBs include requirements for increasing the capacity of the Mâori workforce in their workforce development plans for 2004/2005.

5.1 To progress Pacific health workforce development DHBs develop the capacity and capability of Pacific providers and their Pacific health workforce.

6.1 To facilitate evolution and development of the health and support workforce to better meet the needs of disabled people the Ministry of Health, in partnership with DHBs, the Office for Disability Issues, health and education service providers and disabled people, work to develop a programme of activities to enhance health practitioners’ knowledge of, and responsiveness to, disability issues.

7.1 To facilitate the enhancement of health workforce research and evaluation capability the Ministry of Health, in consultation with DHBNZ, HWAC, HRC, and professional bodies, develop a national health and disability workforce research framework by June 2005.

What process did HWAC follow to ensure sector-wide ownership of the recommendations in Future Directions?

HWAC was established in April 2001. One of its first tasks was to engage with the health sector to draw a snapshot of the health and disability workforce and document workforce issues the sector reported to the Committee.

Following the stocktake, HWAC published a discussion document in October 2001. Framing Future Directions encouraged the sector to provide input to developing workforce solutions that will lead to developing an appropriate workforce to meet the needs of all New Zealanders. Framing Future Directions amalgamated workforce issues into six priority areas for further health and disability development.

A national summit was hosted by HWAC in March 2003. The summit enabled the sector to come together and discuss issues within the six priority areas. It was very important in terms of reaffirming the sector’s commitment to working together towards health workforce development.

Future Directions is an important milestone for HWAC. It builds upon previous reports and clearly demonstrates the benefit of the sector working together on addressing workforce issues. In addition to the six priority areas discussed at the summit, HWAC has amalgamated research and evaluation issues into a seventh priority area. The seven key priority areas for workforce development are:

-Health workforce implications of Primary Health Care Strategy

-Development of healthy workplace environments

-Evolution and further development of health workforce education

-Maori health workforce development

-Pacific health workforce development

-Evolution and development of the health and support workforce to better meet the needs of disabled people

-Enhancement of health workforce research and evaluation capability

Peter Abernethy Manager Communications Government & Sector Relations Corporate & Information Directorate Ministry of Health

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