Summary
This Health of the Health Workforce Report 2015 is Health Workforce New Zealand's second update on the state of the health and disability workforce. It is a companion document to the Role of Health Workforce New Zealand, which provides background and contextual information.
The workforce is made up of a wide variety of occupational groups that will increasingly work together as models of care move out of hospitals and closer to home. The five main occupational groups discussed in this report are:
- doctors and dentists – the medical workforce
- nurses
- midwives
- allied health, science and technical workers
- kaiāwhina (non-regulated) workers.
The 2014 report has had a significant impact across the health sector in raising understanding of the issues facing New Zealand’s health workforce and the various ways the sector and the Ministry of Health is addressing those issues. The 2015 report contributes to the development of strategies and programmes to improve New Zealanders’ health and wellbeing.
Health Workforce New Zealand’s focus continues to be on strengthening the health and disability workforce by improving the recruitment, retention and distribution of health professionals. It works across the sector and at a regional level to align workforce development with service demand.