The profession should speak with one voice in the debate about task transfer
In mid December last year, a group of senior doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, hospital administrators and consumers in New South Wales publicly announced that they had had enough. So great was their frustration with the failure of the government to creatively confront the continuing workforce crisis in NSW public hospitals that they had banded together as the Hospital Reform Group to initiate open debate in the community and to find solutions. The media dubbed them the “health rebels”.1
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- 1. Pollard R. Health rebels’ charter to save lives. Sydney Morning Herald 2005; 10–11 Dec: 1.
- 2. Hospital Reform Group manifesto. Available at: http://www.newmatilda.com/policytoolkit/policydetail.asp?PolicyID=254 (accessed Dec 2005).
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- 4. Australian Government Productivity Commission. Australia’s health workforce. Position paper. Canberra: Productivity Commission, 2005. Available at: http://www.pc.gov.au/study/healthworkforce/positionpaper/index.html (accessed Dec 2005).
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- 6. Gavel P, Evans J, Young J. Who are the doctors of tomorrow? Some Australian perspectives and thoughts. International Medical Workforce Collaborative. 9th Conference. Melbourne, 15–19 November 2005. Available at: http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/amwac/amwac/9conf.html (accessed Dec 2005).
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- 9. Peyton R. The industrialisation of surgery. Ann R Coll Surg Engl (Suppl) 2005; 87: 300-301.
- 10. Catto G. In: Royal College of Physicians. Doctors in society: medical professionalism in a changing world. London: RCP, 2005: 39-44.
- 11. Coombes P. In: Royal College of Physicians. Doctors in society: medical professionalism in a changing world. London: RCP, 2005: 32-38.
I was an invited attendee at the Health Workforce Innovation Conference, Brisbane, 22–23 November 2005. The registration fee was waived.