We’re very pleased to share our recent article published in the Australian Journal of Rural Health, titled “The Australian health workforce: Disproportionate shortfalls in small rural towns.”
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ajr.13121?
In this paper, we examined national workforce registration data and found that small rural towns (MM5) — those with populations between 5,000 and 15,000 — are particularly under-served when it comes to access to registered health professionals. While much attention is given to rural workforce shortages in general, our findings show that these smaller towns are disproportionately affected, with fewer practitioners per capita than larger regional centres or metropolitan areas or even more remote areas. These small rural towns are in the unfortunate situation where they suffer from a deficit of private sector employment of health-care workers when compared to metropolitan regions, together with low levels of public sector healthcare workforce employment when compared to remote regions.
This work highlights the need for targeted workforce strategies that focus on smaller communities, not just broad rural classifications. We hope the findings will support more nuanced policy approaches, including the design of rural training pathways, funding models, and service delivery innovations that reflect the distinct needs of small-town Australia.
