New investments in primary care in Australia

Chris Del Mar

doi:10.1186/1472-6963-11-39

Abstract

There is a crisis in primary care health workforce shortages in Australia. Its government has attempted to fix this by role-substitution (replacing medical work with nursing instead). This was not completely successful. Obstacles included entrenched social roles (leading to doctors 'checking' their nurse role-substituted work) and structures (nurses subservient to doctors) - both exacerbated by primary care doctors' ageing demographic; doctors owning their own practices; doctors feeling themselves to have primary responsibility for the care delivered; and greater attraction towards independence that may have selected doctors into primary care in the first place.Yet there is much to be optimistic about this social experiment. It was conducted, if not ideally, at least in an environment that the Australian government has enriched with capacity for research and evaluation.

Highlights

The paper by Pearce et al[1], above, clearly outlines the health worker crisis that is affecting Australia
Comment Pearce et al have undertaken a fascinating dissection of the struggles that Australia is undergoing to improve its primary care health workforce[1]
On the face of it, the intention was to increase the teamwork, by making nurses more equal partners in the healthcare team, Correspondence: cdelmar@bond.edu.au Professor of Primary Care Research, Bond University, Australia legitimately getting their own fees for service together with incentive grants direct to the practice, and able to see patients in their own right, rather than as the handmaidens of the practice

Summary

Introduction

The paper by Pearce et al[1], above, clearly outlines the health worker crisis that is affecting Australia. Background The paper by Pearce et al[1], above, clearly outlines the health worker crisis that is affecting Australia.

Results

Conclusion