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allied health insights

Allied Health Insights Vol. 2, No.3: The Rationing Of Allied Health Services By Stealth—And What You Can Do About It

We all recognise that there is an allied health workforce shortage right now—do you find that you are continually trying to deliver more health care with fewer resources?

Allied health services often suffer from service rationing by stealth: a gradual and insidious reduction in resources while we are trying to meet the same, or increasing health service demand. Early signs of stealth rationing can include an inability for staff to take planned annual leave because of a lack of backfill, or challenges catching up after unplanned leave.

Allied health work also suffers from bureaucracy creep: the growth of the non-clinical parts of our work without appropriate acknowledgement of the additional workload. Writing reports over lunch or staying late to finish administrative tasks are signs that the administrative side of your work has not been factored adequately into your workload.

In this month’s edition of Allied Health Insights, we address the stealth rationing and bureaucracy creep affecting allied health professionals, and provide a set of strategies for addressing and managing this.

We also have a chat with associate professor and osteopath clinician Paul Orrock about what a typical day is like for an osteopath who combines clinical practice and academic research. An osteopath who is able to incorporate an academic career is quite a rare occurrence.

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