Comment on ‘Building allied health workforce capacity: a strategic approach to workforce innovation'

Abstract

Somerville et al.1 discuss the importance of using allied health assistants (AHAs) and building on the current allied health workforce to ensure the long-term sustainability of the appropriate skill mix of staff employed within healthcare.2 This reinforces that the quality of care provided to patients needs to be provided by the right person, with the right skills, experience and clinical expertise, at the right time.Somerville et al.1 found that between 11% and 17% of tasks completed by allied health professionals (AHPs) could be delegated to, and within the scope of practice of, AHAs with appropriate supervision provided by an AHP. Clinical tasks represented the majority of the workload that could be reallocated to an AHA, with 55.5% of AHPs reporting that certain tasks within their current workload could be completed by AHAs. The impact of this has associated cost-benefits, as well as improving overall patient experience and outcomes,3 and has implications for the job satisfaction of AHPs.4The 11%-17% of tasks that could be reallocated to AHAs is crucial because AHPs have more recently been seen to be undertaking advanced scope of practice roles5,6 in a range of clinical settings. Theseroleshave been seento providesignificant efficiencies, such as reducing patient waiting times, improving patient flow and access to services and improving the quality of patient care.3,7 By allocating up to 17% of a workload to AHAs, this would further support AHPs in using their clinical expertise and skills to complete high-level tasks.Queensland Health have piloted an Advanced Clinical Practice Framework,8 and the associated benefits of this framework include improving access to services, improved service delivery, increasing workforce productivity, enhancing patient experience and addressing compliance with national priorities.In order to support AHPs pursuing and transitioning into roles such as these, we need to create workload capacity for them; this can be achieved through further investment and better utilisation of the AHA model of care.The challenge we currently have is that AHPs need to provide adequate supervision and training to AHAs to ensure they maintain an acceptable level of competence and be proficient in the skill of delegation. The ability of AHPs to achieve this in an economic climate where public sector funding is being reduced, the demand for hospital access remains high and allied health services are being rationalised makes this increasingly difficult. …