Achieving Government’s health targets depends on a capable and well-distributed supply of health professionals. Since its establishment in 2009, HWNZ has worked on initiatives aimed at developing a workforce capable of supporting the delivery of health targets and other government and wider Ministry priorities for health. Initiatives include financial support for postgraduate programmes, schemes to target hard-to-staff communities and specialties, and innovative solutions to meet New Zealand's changing healthcare needs.
HWNZ’s priorities, aligned to the Statement of Intent 2014 to 2018, are to continue to strengthen the health and disability workforce by
- improving recruitment, retention and distribution of the health and disability workforce
- delivering on health and disability workforce priorities through increased collaboration, intersectoral partnerships and regional approaches to improve productivity and economies of scale
- aligning workforce development to meet service demand
- maximising workforce resources, reduce duplication
- strengthening health workforce intelligence to provide high quality support and advice
The Health workforce New Zealand Strategic Plan describes HWNZ strategic approach to working with key workforces to develop a healthcare workforce that is sustainable, flexible and fit for purpose. This approach is underpinned by the Triple Aim Approach that results in:
- an improvement in individuals’ experience of their healthcare and better individual health outcomes
- an improvement in the health and wellbeing of our communities
- a reduction in the per capita costs of healthcare.