Area-Level Allied Health Workforce Planning Report Sample

Tasmania

HealthWork Mapping’s Area-Level Allied Health Workforce Planning Report provide up-to-date workforce planning and strategic insights to help Primary Health Networks (PHNs), Local Health Network (LHNs), and other workforce planners better understand the allied health workforce within their geographic footprint and benchmark against peers, nationally.

About HealthWork Mapping

HealthWork International works with health care organisations, government and professional associations to improve the quality and effectiveness of service delivery by providing a complete suite of services to support health workforce planning, development, capacity building, registration and regulation.

This report showcases examples of the spatiotemporal analysis of the relationship between the community need for allied health services and the supply of practitioners for Primary Health Tasmania.

The full report includes:

• All AHPRA-registered allied health professions

• Allied Health Indicators of Need and supply for each profession

• All data available at the SA3¹-level within the area of interest

• Data presented in interactive maps, charts, and tables

We are currently working with self-regulated professions to include their data where available.

About HealthWork International

HealthWork International works with health care organisations, government and professional associations to improve the quality and effectiveness of service delivery by providing a complete suite of services to support health workforce planning, development, capacity building, registration and regulation.

1. Allied Health Indicators of Need

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. For example, the podiatry indicators of need include age, sex, prevalence of diabetes, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status, and socio-economic status.

Our Chief Executive Officer is an allied health professional and researcher with more than 20 years’ international research and consultancy experience on allied health workforce issues. Using our understanding of population need for allied health we synthesise these indicators into the Allied Health Index of Need - a profession-specific metric of the key drivers of population need.

In Section 3 below we explore some of these indicators and indices index further.

2. Overview of Selected Allied Health Professions

There are approximately 30 distinct allied health professions in Australia. Allied Health Professions of Australia (AHPA) represents 27 professional associations including ten of the twelve Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) registered allied health professions The major scope of practice of each AHP is described below together with a recent headcount for active practitioners in profession.

Chiropractors

Chiropractors are experts in the musculo-skeletal system and the effects of disorders of the system on nervous system function and general health. They diagnose, manage, and prevent disorders of the spine using manual manipulation. Their services include health promotion, rehabilitation and patient education. Chiropractic is an APHRA registered profession.

Occupational Therapists

Occupational therapists (OTs) are experts at facilitating individuals and groups to achieve optimal health and well-being by participating in meaningful activities. Their services include assessment of ableness and advising on techniques and equipment to facilitate activity. OTs develop treatment plans to enable their clients to reach their goals in collaboration with other healthcare professionals.

Physiotherapists

Physiotherapy is an AHPRA-regulated profession. Physiotherapists which uses physical techniques to treat a broad range of injuries and medical conditions.

Podiatrists

Podiatrists are an AHPRA-regulated profession with expertise in lower limb and foot health including congenital, developmental, and sports-related issues. Patients include people with lower limb problems associated with underlying conditions like diabetes. Podiatry services include preventing, diagnosing, treating, and rehabilitating medical and surgical conditions. Podiatrists can be endorsed to prescribe a range of scheduled medicines. The profession also includes a specialisation in podiatric surgery.

3. Strategic Workforce Planning for Tasmania

Precise forecasting of the allied health workforce supply and need in your PHN helps secure the highest quality of healthcare for the community as well as optimising healthcare spending.

In this section we showcase examples from professions.

Physiotherapists Supply

The primary indicator in allied health supply is the number of active practitioners relative to population. The map below allows exploring the spatial distribution of physiotherapists in 2021 at the SA4².

Physiotherapy and Disability by PHN

At the population level, aggregated population statistics provide insight into the need for various allied health services. Below is an example from our platform exploring the relationship between the rates of supply of physiotherapists and the rate of disability (as indicated by having a need for assistance) at the Primary Health Network level.

Colour now indicates the combination of supply and need indicators for each PHN. For example, areas coloured orange have the greatest unmet need.

Charting this relationship reveals more trends. In the chart below the size of the points indicates the relative population size, representing the magnitude of the supply and need, whilst the colour now indicates which state or territory the PHN is located in.

Hover over points for further detail.

Chiropractors and Socio-economic Status

The spatial distribution of population size can also be explored. The example below includes markers showing the total population and how it relates to the supply of chiropractors and socio-economic status (as indicated by the ABS Index of Relative Social Disadvantage)³ by PHN. Note that IRSD is coloured so that a darker shade indicates less advantage (ie a lower IRSD score).

Distribution of chriopractors and socioeconomic status by Greater Capital City Statistical Area in 2021

Charting this same relationship highlights highlights the general trend between socio-economic status and access to chiropractic services - noting that the size of the points indicates the population of each PHN.

Need Supply Nexus for Podiatry by PHN

Our development of a novel Index of Allied Health Need synthesises key population attributes into a single representative metric. For example, the Allied Health Index of Need for podiatry: Need_Podiatry. This indicator is a score out of 10 with higher values indicating greater need.

Mapping Need_Podiatry gives an intuitive grasp of the spatial distribution of the areas where podiatry services would provide the most community benefit.

The number of active podiatrists per 100,000 population is used as an indicator of supply: Supply_Podiatry. And at the nexus of the Supply_Podiatry and Need_Podiatry we can explore important gaps between a population’s need for the services of a particular allied health profession and the supply of available practitioners.

This shows that the Tasmanian PHN (shown in purple below) has relative high need for podiatry services but lower than average supply in a national context.

Taking a closer look

Knowing that the need for podiatry services is less well met with supply in Tasmania compared to some PHNs, we can also explore the nexus of supply and need within the Tasmanian PHN. In this case we can see how this nexus varies between the SA3s⁴ that make up the PHN.

Here we can see that the more urban areas near Hobart have lower need and higher supply whilst the more regional areas have higher need and mixed levels of supply - with several SA3s having no podiatrists at all.

Conclusion

This report is intended to provide PHNs with an indication of the data points available through our PHN report to support PHNs to consider whether the needs of the population they serve are being met by the supply of particular allied health professions. Full PHN reports include the same types of insights for all AHPRA-regulated allied health professions. We are also building our dataset to include non-AHPRA regulated professions. Please contact us if you would like to discuss the insights our PHN report can provide you, to help support workforce planning, policy decisions, and other PHN activity.

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

1. 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.

2. Statistical Area 4s refers to areas with populations of over 100,000. Regional SA4s tend to have 100,000 to 300,000 people, while in metropolitan areas SA4s include larger populations between 300,000 and 500,000 people. This breaks Australia down into 107 SA4 areas (or 89 spatial areas) and are designed to reflect labour markets within States.

   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-4.

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

4. 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.

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