The new Allied Health Professions Strategy for England 2022 to 2027 was launched today by the Chief Allied Health Professions Officer England, Suzanne Rastrick (OBE). The strategy was co-designed with representatives of the whole AHP community: support workers, assistant practitioners, registered professionals, pre-registration apprentices and students, and received contributions from over 21,000 people who access, […]
We all have stories of the ridiculous challenges in accessing sufficient allied health (and other) workers to meet the burgeoning demand in the disability, aged care, community, hospital sectors – and in fact any space that employs health workers right now. These challenges are exacerbated further by the deployment of allied health professionals to help manage surge [...]
Most people have heard of a physiotherapist, occupational therapist, dietitian and a podiatrist – but do you know what a pedorthist, orthoptist, prosthetist or music therapist does? The allied health workforce includes a number of very small, very niche, but very important professions. We call these “small but critical workforces”. Small may be beautiful, but […]
Hospital care is expensive. Unnecessary hospitalisation carries risks for patients while placing an enormous burden on the health care system. For instance, numerous studies demonstrate that for frail patients, a visit to hospital can have serious consequences. In addition, disruptions to elective surgery caused by COVID-19 mean that the health system is having to look at ways to catch [...]
Allied health services are facing unprecedented workforce shortages due to the rapid growth of NDIS, the creation of new roles due to COVID, changes to aged care funding, and the ageing population. With unemployment at near record lows and sustained delays on international migration, allied health services are often forced to look at alternative ways to meet workforce [...]
I’m going to do a quick plug for my new book, co-authored with Professor Alan Borthwick OBE “The Allied Health Professions – A sociological Perspective”, published by Policy Press (March 2021). The book is part of a series on the Sociology of the Health Professions: Future International Directions, edited by Professors Mike Saks and Mike Dent. [...]
Given the rapidly changing demand for the allied health workforce, why is it that we know so little about the allied health workforce and lack the planning tools to help manage allied health supply and demand? Allied health professions represent approximately 23% of the registered health workforce – that is professions registered with the National Registration and [...]
Australia is facing critical allied health workforce shortages across several disciplines. Workforce shortages are a burning platform for the allied health professions, but there is no central data, planning or coordination of the workforce to look at solutions collectively. For several reasons, there are no statistics available on the actual extent of allied health workforce shortages [...]
Australia has no centralised, up to date allied health workforce data for workforce planning purposes. Anecdotal evidence from a range of different providers tells us that there is a critical allied health workforce shortage in some professions, but there are limited available data to support or refute this. The Department of Education Skills and Employment provides analyses [...]
