In a wide ranging report looking at the carer needs across Australia, PwC Australia published Reimagine Care Workforce Solutions in October 2022.
Australian Health Journal spoke with Kerryn Dillon, Director Ageing and Reablement and Health Workforce at PwC Australia about the community care sectors of aged care, disability care and childcare the report covers.
These segments cover a number of policy portfolios – education, social services, housing, employment and health. Kerryn references some of the demands on community care workers:
- 22% of the 5.7 million aged over 60 in Australia access aged care services
- 10% of the 1 in 6 people living with a disability access specialised disability services through the NDIS
- 1.3 million of the 1.6 million children in Australia aged under 5 access child care services
Kerryn states there is a significant overlap in the duties performed across the segments and the demand will continue to grow. There are 4 key challenges that she talks about
- Demand increasing due to population growth, the ageing population, growth of NDIS
- Ageing workforce across domains such as nursing and aged care, further compounded by the same rate not entering the workforce
- Limited training for the existing workforce and focus on compliance rather than best practice
- Poor value proposition making it difficult to attract new workers
Frances McMurtrie, Senior Management from Strategy&, a division of PwC Australia speaks about the work Strategy& has done in the report on applying a demand and supply model to the care workforce shortage issues.
Frances talks about the factors and levers that determine the supply of workers, especially the key factor of motivation in performing a care worker role. The analysis includes the care worker pipeline or funnel that approximates (using ABS, Aged Care Workforce Census and NDIS National Workforce Plans) that of the 13 million Australian making up the total labour force, there are less than 1 million who are interested, trained and delivering care roles.
In researching the drop off from a pool of 13 million to 1 million, most investment is going into the “narrow-end” for training and recruitment. Research has shown there is a lack of investment in the motivation supply factor, in closer proximity to the total labour force of 13 million (and even at the top of the funnel where the working age population is at 16 million).
As Frances points out, current communication strategies on attracting care workers are focusing on the existing value proposition of being a care worker – primarily on altruism.
Reimagining care workforce solutions forms PwC Australia and Strategy&’s assessment on fiscal policy, the share economy, the role of telecare or virtual care and using robotics.
Both Kerryn and Frances conclude with earmarking technology being a significant enabler of the care worker sector and addressing some of the challenges.
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Delivering anaesthetic services to countries where surgical services can’t be provided
Dr Wendy Falloon is an Anaesthetist of over 30 years experience and a Fellow of Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA). She studied medicine at the University of Tasmania, and worked in Hobart, Sydney and the Uk while completing her specialist qualifications. Her primary professional focus has always been to deliver the best possible experience of anaesthesia to each and every patient, and for them to know that she sees and values them, and their stories.
Having been born in Africa, she realised even as a child that health and wealth were largely a product of where people happen to be born. This sowed the seed of her ongoing desire to be of help to others in less fortunate circumstances, ultimately leading to her volunteer work with the Mercy Ships charity. This is one of the most fulfilling aspects of her career, and she has volunteered in Africa with Mercy Ships 8 times since 2014.
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New clinical research entity first to operate across both Australia and New Zealand
Over the past 30 years, 18,000 clinical trials that have been registered in Australia, with the sector contributing $1.4 billion to Australia’s economy annually. Trials are a critical aspect of evidence-based medicine, and are essential for testing how new treatments, tests and vaccines will work. In New Zealand they contribute $146 million to the New Zealand economy.
To capitalise on this unique position and growth, a coordinated multi-site clinical research operation was missing, until now.
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Stroke care advances in translated research
New nurse-led protocols for stroke patients, based on ACU research, led by the Nursing Research Institute, have resulted in changes to policy, guidelines and clinical practice in Europe and Australia. The protocols were developed through the Quality in Acute Stroke Care (QASC) Trial (published in the Lancet, 2011) to manage fever, hyperglycaemia and swallowing (FeSS) post-stroke.
