The Australian Health Workforce Institute was  founded by the University of Queensland and the University of Melbourne in 2007. It was apparent at this time that urgent action was needed to address Australia’s impeding health workforce crisis.

In establishing the Institute, it was recognized that both the University of Queensland and the University of Melbourne had an important leadership role in working to ensure not only that future medical workers are well-trained, but also that the composition and structure of the health workforce will meet future demands.

While some sceptics express doubts about the depth of the problem, such doubts fly in the face of the facts:

• Nearly 10% of GDP is currently spent on health and this figure is likely to reach 20% by 2020;
• 9% of Australians are already working in the health sector;
• Australia lags behind countries such as the United States in supporting new health worker roles;
• The World Health Organization estimates a global shortfall of over 4.3 million health workers in the next decade.

As in most drastic scenarios, plenty of warning signals are available – it is imperative not only to heed these calls, but to ensure that we do in order to ensure the continuance of an excellent health service for all Australians.

In the past, policy-making in the area of health workforce has tended to respond to the demands of the moment, rather than looking at ways that things could be done more efficiently. For example, the ratio of spending on hospitals and preventive medicine is currently 90:10. It may be questioned whether allocating increased resources to the prevention of disease and illness, resulting in a funding ratio of approximately 80:20, would be a more sustainable approach in the long-term. At the very least, issues like these need to be debated on the basis of extensive research and analysis.

The establishment of AHWI endows health policy-makers with the resources they require more adequately to define and deliver Australia’s health workforce needs. Although one can never be sure that projections based on research will be 100% accurate, there is little doubt that policy-making informed by empirical analysis is more likely to be successful than that which offers only a short-term response to immediate difficulties.