Australia’s allied health sector is grappling with a major talent shortage and will require an additional 25,000 workers over the next five years to meet growing demand for its services. The soon-to-be released National Allied Health Workforce Strategy is expected to offer some reprieve. But in the face of a shrinking global talent pool and nationwide funding constraints, what levers can it pull — if any — to make a lasting impact? Hospital + Healthcare speaks with the Australian Government’s Chief Allied Health Officer, Anita Hobson-Powell, who is overseeing the strategy.
Anita Hobson-Powell believes data is the answer to Australia’s undersupply of allied health workers and says measures to improve data access are a primary focus of her workforce planning.
Until now, a lack of data sharing agreements has left authorities unclear on how many allied health professionals Australia has; along with where, what and how often they practice.
“At present, the distribution of allied health professionals throughout Australia is not well understood, and this is, in part, because we don’t have data sharing agreements between key entities.
“We need to be focused on building these agreements to ensure we build a clear picture of where there is met and unmet need throughout the country,” she told Hospital + Healthcare.
No agreed definition
Digging deeper, data issues also stem from a lack of agreement on what an allied health professional is — an issue the strategy is seeking to address.
“In its broadest form, allied health is everything that is not nursing or medicine, which is far too generic, and lends itself to a range of definitions at the federal and state level,” said the leader of Allied Health Professions Australia (AHPA), Bronwyn Morris-Donovan, who has been a major contributor to the strategy.
“If you look at the Commonwealth, we recognise about 28 professionals through our various funding mechanisms — of which only 11 fall under the AHPA,” Hobson-Powell added.
“Ahpra [Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency] professionals have some really good data about where people are working and they collect information about their plans and so forth. But with self-regulating professions, all of that data sits with the self-regulating entities and there are no data sharing agreements with them and the Commonwealth.
“So it’s very hard for us to know exactly how many allied health professionals there are, where they are working, what type of work they are doing, in which sectors, and for how many hours. And these are the fundamentals we are firming up for our workforce planning.”
Knock-on improvements for funding and equity
An agreed definition of allied health would also have positive, knock-on effects for funding arrangements; in turn, boosting the supply of allied health workers.
In residential aged care facilities, funding constraints have already driven a range of allied health redundancies, deterring many from pursuing the industry, Morris-Donovan said.
“When it comes to eligibility for funding, there’s always a list of which allied health professionals can work and be funded within a scheme — for example, under the Department of Veteran Affairs Scheme or through the NDIS [National Disability Insurance Scheme], or within aged care. But that list of professionals is different for every single scheme. And that makes it very hard for the consumer to know which allied health professional is funded under which scheme.
“It also creates quite intense competition between the allied health professions because when you look at, say, a diabetes group therapy item, exercise physiology is funded, but physiotherapy is not. And that creates inequity,” she said.
Addressing cultural equity
Data is also helping to address the underrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in allied health — a move that could boost overall workforce numbers.
Despite representing 3.8% of the national population, people from this cultural background make up less than 1% of the allied health workforce.
“Data will give us insight into where and why these inequities exist, giving us direction on how we can boost workforce participation among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people,” Hobson-Powell said.
We have the data, now what?
By understanding the nature and distribution of Australia’s allied health workforce, Hobson-Powell says the Department of Health and Aged Care will gain perspective on the factors and reforms that influence the supply and demand of allied health professionals.
“We will carefully review the relevant policies, strategies and models of care currently in place and with that knowledge develop an evidence-based strategy to move forward with attraction and retention initiatives.
“This could mean recommending initiatives for working in rural, regional or remote settings, or it could mean recommending ways to support fluidity of allied health professions across the various sectors in which they work,” she said.
The final strategy is currently being drafted, with evidence from two public rounds of consultations, and a series of online forums that occurred between May 2024 and March 2025.
