Health Workforce Advisory Committee puts forward national strategies
THE Health Workforce Advisory Committee's (HWAC) latest report provides the strategic approach needed to support the
New Zealand health workforce, says HWAC chairman Prof Andrew Hornblow.
HWAC's Framing Future Directions Discussion Document, released today, follows HWAC's first stocktake document which
identified workforce capacity and key workforce issues such as recruitment and retention. Framing Future Directions
addresses the challenge of developing national strategic goals and proposals for health workforce development.
"Our thinking and discussions have focussed more on workforce development as an ongoing organisational and social
process than a set of quick-fix solutions," said Prof Hornblow.
"Nurturing and developing the workforce must be seen as a central, ongoing and dynamic process for the health sector,
not emergency intervention in times of crisis. Our aim in presenting Framing Future Directions as a discussion document
is to involve the sector in the process of agreeing on goals and strategies that will lead to a responsive health
workforce that meets the needs of all New Zealanders."
Framing Future Directions identified six priority areas for workforce development:
Addressing the workforce implications of the Primary Health Care Strategy Promoting a healthy hospital workplace
environment Educating a responsive health workforce Building the capacity of the Maori health workforce Building the
capacity of the Pacific health workforce Ensuring the health and disability workforce is reponsive to the needs of
disabled people
Three objectives are already being actioned within the health sector:
* Effective working relationships between the health and education sectors * Development of comprehensive DHB databases
of health workforce information * DHBs are giving greater priority to planning their workforce at a local and regional
level
Prof Hornblow said HWAC recognised the sector's wide range of expectations as to how it could and should achieve its key
tasks.
"We recognise the validity of the many different perspectives on workforce development issues. Rather than look at
specific issues, such as recruitment and retention, or specific groups, such as medical practitioners or nurses, the
committee has attempted to look at the whole health system, the tasks it must tackle and the directions in which health
care is moving," he said.
The next step is to conduct public consultation on Framing Future Directions. A series of meetings will be held in main
centres between November and Christmas. Submissions on the document can be received until the end of January 2003 and
feedback will be discussed at the summit meeting in March.
HWAC will then make recommendations to the Minister of Health on these goals. "By setting goals the sector will have
something to aim for collectively, and will be able to measure its achievements. We look forward to discussing the
HWAC's vision and proposals will the public over the next few months," said Prof Hornblow.