Our role in allied health
Allied health is a growing and dynamic field that plays an important role in the health and wellbeing of the community. The Australian Government is working to ensure that every Australian community has access to the allied health services they need.
The following areas will be important over the coming years.
Increasing access to services in rural and remote Australia
Australians living in rural and remote areas have less access to allied health services than those living in more built-up areas. This is due to both a shortage of allied health professionals in those areas, and poor distribution of the available workers.
We fund:
- the Allied Health Rural Generalist Workforce and Education Scheme, run by Services for Australian Rural and Remote Allied Health (SARRAH)
- workforce incentives to support general practices across Australia to employ or retain allied health professionals.
Biennial summit
The Australian and New Zealand Governments’ Chief Allied Health Officers co-convened the first Australia/New Zealand Summit on the value of allied health care. Held in August 2022, future summits will be held every 2 years.
The summit was held virtually, over 2 half days, and attracted over 950 health professionals, professional bodies, researchers, and policy makers. The 2022 theme was demonstrating the value and utility of allied health care. The summit included a series of presentations showcasing research papers and case studies as well as a facilitated panel discussion.
If you have any questions about the summit please contact us.
Watch the recordings
Read the presentations
Presentations are available on the New Zealand Ministry of Health’s Allied Health Summit web page, under the Downloads heading.
See a special illustration that was commissioned during the summit.
COVID-19
Although the majority of cases are considered mild, some COVID-19 patients might need long-term support with their rehabilitation.
Allied health professionals play a vital role in supporting their recovery. This can include physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech pathologists, psychologists, social workers and pharmacists. We will continue to support individuals who need ongoing health care and support after COVID-19 infection.
Contact your health professional if you have ongoing symptoms after recovering from COVID-19.
We run webinars on COVID-19 issues to keep the allied health sector updated on this rapidly changing situation.
Health workforce programs
We are working on a range of health workforce programs to ensure Australia has a world-class health system, supported by a highly trained, qualified and well-distributed health workforce.
Programs related to allied health include:
- Stronger Rural Health Strategy
- Workforce Incentive Program
- Rural Locum Assistance Program (Rural LAP)
- Rural Pharmacy Scholarship Scheme
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Pharmacy Scholarship Scheme
- Puggy Hunter Memorial Scholarship Scheme
- Rural Health Continuing Education (RHCE) sub-program.
Chief Allied Health Officer
The Government has appointed Dr Anne-marie Boxall as Chief Allied Health Officer. This role supports:
- the Primary Health Care 10-Year Plan
- health workforce reforms
- the Stronger Rural Health Strategy.
