Indicator used
Over the last ten years of rural workforce policies, access to GP services in rural and regional areas is now comparable to that in the major cities. However, challenges continue for access to GP services in remote areas.
The total number of all doctors has also increased, providing a larger pool of specialists available to work in, or provide outreach services to, rural and remote Australia.
As the data indicates from 2015 onwards, Nurses and midwives have remained relatively evenly distributed between major cities and rural and regional areas. While allied health practitioners distribution is growing at a much slower rate.
The department’s emphasis is on rural and remote end to end training in rural locations as well as the creation of new opportunities for Australian trained health workforce to train and work in rural and remote Australia. Ensuring individual decisions are aligned to what the nation needs from the health workforce in the future is essential.
Caveat
Data has been drawn from a national indicator or dataset and is an approximation of the UN SDG Indicator. We will work to develop an Australian dataset that meets the globally agreed methodology for this UN SDG Indicator.
Indicator description
Health worker density and distribution
Unit of measurement
Number of health practitioners and distribution
Methodology
Number of health workers by type of practitioner, by gender or by remoteness area.
Note: GP counts do not include GP Trainees.
Employed medical practitioners by Remoteness Area (headcount) 