The Productivity Commission released a report, Australia's Health Workforce on January 19th. It is 435 pages and I don't quite have the time to go right through it. As a consequence I don't dig much deeper than the recommendations, sorry.

Some of their critical points;

It is critical to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the available health workforce, and to improve its distribution.

Health costs are increasing and consuming a greater amount of Australia's GDP. Health professionals are also scarce in regional areas.

The Commission's objectives are, therefore, to develop a more sustainable and responsive health workforce, while maintaining a commitment to high quality and safe health outcomes. It has proposed a set of national workforce structures designed to:

- support local innovations, and objectively evaluate, facilitate and drive those of national significance through an advisory health workforce improvement agency;

- promote more responsive health education and training arrangements through: the creation of an independent advisory council; and a high-level taskforce to achieve greater transparency (and appropriate contestability) of funding for clinical training;

- integrate the current profession-based accreditation of health education and training through an over-arching national accreditation board that could, initially at least, delegate functions to appropriate existing entities, based on their capacity to contribute to the objectives of the new accreditation regime;

- provide for national registration standards for health professions and for the creation of a national registration board with supporting professional panels; and

- improve funding-related incentives for workforce change through: the transparent assessment by an independent committee of proposals to extend MBS coverage beyond the medical profession; the introduction of (discounted) MBS rebates for a wider range of delegated services; and addressing distortions in rebate relativities.

One of their recommendations is to create a national accreditation board. More anti-federalism? A new layer of anti-state bureaucracy? or a justified centralised efficiency?

The best way to bring down salary costs and scarcity of skills is to create an over-supply. The Doctor is far too specialised in terms of knowledge and education time to be used a general practitioner. To commoditise the health industry the government should create new levels of health Professionals that can do quick check ups and handle health problems that do not require surgery or specialists.

This would create an over-supply of GP level health professionals, ensuring a greater distribution in regional areas, reducing costs and enabling greater innovation as Health Practitioners seek to differentiate themselves in the marketplace.

Time to stick the boot into the AMA and sideline them as a political lobby group.

More Reading on Health

• Health
• Productivity Commission
• Australia's Health Workforce
• The Body Politic
• Health Expenditure as % GDP
• Productivity Commission's Health Workforce Report
• Health Market And Access To Services
• The Issue of Health in WWI and the Australian Flying Corps
• Price Transparency in the US Health Care System
• Affordable Care Act Provisions Year By Year