The National Health Workforce Taskforce (NHWT) was implemented under a COAG initiative to undertake projects which inform development of practical solutions on workforce innovation and reform. The NHWT is hosted by the Victorian Department of Human Services in Melbourne. It is a national body created under the Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council (AHMAC) committee structures and reports directly to the Chair of AHMAC’s Health Workforce Principal Committee (HWPC).

As part of its work on Clinical Training, the NHWT accepted submissions from concerned organisations/bodies. ACAP prepared a submission outlining the key concerns for Paramedics in Australia. In summary:

1. The submission outlines the importance of appropriate recognition of the scope of demand for clinical training placements in determining suitable pathways for training and the funding and other provisions designed to support clinical training.
2. The submission draws attention to the continuing omission of out of hospital EMS as a critical component of health care requiring exceptional clinical interventionist skills and competencies derived from suitable practicum training.
3. The submission notes the deficiencies in the current arrangements for regulation of paramedics and the urgent priority to redress the situation by the inclusion of paramedic practitioners within the COAG scheme for the regulation of health professions.
4. It highlights the anomalous and disconcerting situation where paramedical education and paramedic practice remain virtually unrecognised as an allied health profession by all levels of government.
5. The submission recommends the immediate acknowledgment of out of hospital emergency medical services as a discrete field of allied healthcare and the recognition of Paramedicine as an allied health profession with consequential clinical practice needs.

The ACAP Submission

For additional information, visit the NHWT through the following links:

1. http://www.nhwt.gov.au/nhwt.asp
2. http://www.nhwt.gov.au/clinicaltrainingforums.asp
3. http://www.nhwt.gov.au/dataproject-gov.asp