Allied health: untapped potential in the Australian health system

Abstract

Although comprising around 20 per cent of Australia's health care workforce, allied health and its contribution to improving health outcomes remains poorly understood and largely invisible in the Australian health policy and reform environment. There is strong evidence demonstrating the benefits of allied health in improving patient outcomes, minimising risk and harm from illness and improving health system efficiency and capacity to meet increased demand cost effectively. Despite this, the existing health model, funding and culture prevent us from effectively accessing these benefits at a system level. The untapped potential of allied health represents a major underutilised resource to address many of the challenges facing Australia's health system today. A transformational change in the Australian health system in how, where and by whom care is provided is necessary. Australia's health model and culture needs to shift, to genuinely involve the consumer and make full use of all three pillars of the patient care workforce. IntroductionAllied health, medicine and nursing together constitute the patient care workforce, each workforce element bringing unique and necessary skills to provide high-quality, patientcentred care. The three workforces can be considered as the three pillars of the patient care workforce, each being equally necessary for the stability, functioning and outcomes of the whole. Despite this, the allied health pillar is largely overlooked at a systems level in Australia. The unrealised potential of allied health represents a major underutilised resource to address many of the challenges facing our health system today. Better use of the allied health workforce can improve health outcomes and reduce overall health system costs by reducing demand and utilisation of acute health facilities.1 Despite the solutions inherent in this resource, our health system remains unable to access them due to the health system's traditional medical model and focus on acute, episodic care. The health system must adapt in order to meet its core purpose of improving health outcomes and meeting the Australian community's health care needs in a sustainable way. The solutions lie in being clever in using the resources at its disposal, including allied health, to best effect.

Advanced musculoskeletal physiotherapy: Barriers and enablers to multi‐site implementation

“…The implementation of evidence into healthcare practice is important but challenging (Grimshaw, Eccles, Lavis, Hill, & Squires, ; Morris, Wooding, & Grant, ; Woolf, ). AMP workforce innovation implementation is often inconsistent (Philip, ). Our study evaluated the barriers and enablers to implementation of AMP services following the coordinated and supported implementation and roll‐out of 12 new AMP services in Australia.…”

Continuing competence assessment and maintenance in occupational therapy: Scoping review with stakeholder consultation

“…The complexity of health‐care systems may influence continuing competence needs of occupational therapists. In Australia, concerns about health‐care system inefficiency and fragmentation challenge health‐care providers to deliver competent, high quality, cost‐effective services within a complex system (Hall, ; Philip, ). Similar needs for competence exist in the United States, where health‐care funding is moving from a fee‐for‐service model to a model in which value and quality will be the primary determinants of service provider reimbursement (Burwell, ).…”

Secondary Prevention of Chronic Health Conditions in Patients with Multimorbidity: What can Physiotherapists do?

“…Multimorbidity has a social gradient, with disproportionately more people from low socioeconomic backgrounds affected [ 2 , 32 ]; consequently, these people are less likely to be able to pay for additional visits. Moreover, secondary prevention by physiotherapists for patients with multimorbidity in Australia is more likely to be hospital or community based, following a recent and expensive hospital admission [ 33 ]. These services are often oversubscribed and understaffed, have long waiting lists, and are difficult for some patients to attend [ 34 ].…”

“…If allied health professionals, including physiotherapists, are to be the “untapped potential” in the Australian healthcare system [ 33 ], then reversing the inverse care law and increasing access to effective physiotherapy interventions in primary care is an important first step to reduce the burden of multimorbidity and its associated functional decline. Physiotherapy researchers are challenged to take a lead and undertake more research into the effectiveness, and especially cost-effectiveness, of interventions to reduce functional decline and to improve health outcomes for people with multimorbidity.…”