Where is the need for physiotherapy services in my region?

HealthWork Mapping Insights

This insight explores Indicators of Supply and Need for physiotherapy services in the Botany, Marrickville - Sydenham - Petersham, Sydney Inner City, Eastern Suburbs - North, and Eastern Suburbs - South NSW SA3¹ regions and compares these to national benchmarks.

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Indicators of Need and Supply

Workforce Modelling Based on Demand

Job vacancies are commonly used to gauge health workforce demand, yet these are an unreliable indicator of the population need for the allied health workforce. In rural and remote regions, the scarcity of job opportunities distorts job vacancy data, leading to an under-representation of the actual unmet demand. Job vacancies reflect unfilled established posts, which are often insufficient to meet population needs even when filled.

Allied Health Indicators of Need

Workforce modelling based on community need is an innovative alternative. Need for allied healthcare refers to an individual’s capacity to benefit from appropriate healthcare treatment, prevention, or supportive care, which promotes health and well-being, now and in the future.

The Allied Health Indicators of Need are profession-specific collections of population-level data. The need for allied health services is multi-faceted and varies by specialisation within physiotherapy. This report uses several indicators of the need for physiotherapy services including socio-economic status as measured by the ABS Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD)², private health insurance coverage rates, ABS census measurements of the need for assistance, and the portions of the population aged 0-14, 15-64, and 65+.

The number of active AHPRA-registered physiotherapists per 100,000 population is used as the indicator of supply of physiotherapy services.

The table below summarises key population and workforce indicators of supply and need for physiotherapy services across the areas of interest. These indicators are given as totals and percentages, or rates per 100,000 population.

Explore the geographical distribution of these benchmarks by selecting from the check-boxes in the lower-left corner of the map. Note that the colouring of Indicators of Need uses darker colouring to indicate greater Need - for example lower IRSD scores indicate lower socio-economic status and hence greater Need and so have darker shading.

Conclusion

This sample report is intended to provide professions, and allied health professionals, with region-specific insights. For example, this report may support a professional’s decision making to open a business in one SA3 over another, or a profession’s advocacy for increased government support for services in a particular PHN or region.

References

Australian Bureau of Statistics (2017-18), National Health Survey: First results, ABS Website, accessed 21 June 2023.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (2022) ‘Table G01 Selected Person Characteristics by Sex’, 2021 Census of Population and Housing, General Community Profile Tables, accessed 3 May 2023

Australian Bureau of Statistics (2022) ‘Table G18 Core Activity Need for Assistance by Age by Sex’, 2021 Census of Population and Housing, General Community Profile Tables, accessed 3 May 2023

Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care (2023), National Health Workforce Dataset, accessed 22 August 2023

Australian Bureau of Statistics (2011-22), Health and disability, ASGS and LGA, 2011, 2016-2021 Data by region methodology, accessed 24 August 2023.

Footnotes

Statistical Area 3s are regions with roughly 20,000 to 130,000 people and are often based around regional towns and cities or clusters of related suburbs around urban commercial and transport hubs within the metropolitan areas. Often their boundaries coincide with administrative boundaries and may include one or more State Regional Development Area or Local Government Areas (LGA).

For more information see https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/standards/australian-statistical-geography-standard-asgs-edition-3/jul2021-jun2026/main-structure-and-greater-capital-city-statistical-areas/statistical-area-level-3.↩︎
Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD) summarise economic and social conditions into a single value, where higher values indicate less disadvantage.

For more information see https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/lookup/2033.0.55.001main+features100052011 ↩︎