Backflip on deadline to release plan to attract clinicians into Qld health system

In short:

Queensland Health Minister Tim Nicholls has backflipped on a deadline to release a plan to boost the state's health workforce.

In August this year, Mr Nicholls said the plan was finalised but today said there was no timeline for its release.

Opposition Leader Steven Miles called for the urgent release of the plan.

Queensland's health minister has backflipped on a deadline to release a plan to add tens of thousands of new employees to the health workforce.

An analysis released a year ago today revealed the state needed 6,000 new doctors and 46,000 health workers by 2032.

A workforce plan to map out how Queensland would deliver those clinicians was due to follow.

In August, Health Minister Tim Nicholls said the plan was being finalised and would be released "a little later this year".

But asked today in Rockhampton, the minister said there was no timeline for its release.

"No, we want to get it right. And getting it right is not a deadline for a headline, which was the modus operandi of the former government,"

Mr Nicholls said.

"When we've concluded all of that investigation, we'll have a proper workforce plan that people can have faith in, and that will deliver the workforce in the places we need it, when we need it."

Regional disparity

The workforce analysis showed a disparity in healthcare workers between regional and metro areas.

In some allied health professions, regional workforce gaps were as high as 50 per cent, and 72 per cent of workforce growth had occurred primarily in metro areas.

AMA Queensland president Associate Professor Erica Gannon said a workforce plan would be vital in addressing shortfalls.

"The workforce gap analysis was a positive first step in developing a sorely needed, system-wide workforce plan," she said.

"Regional and remote Queenslanders will suffer the most without a comprehensive plan to get more doctors into the system.

"We know demand for health services is only going to increase given our growing and ageing population, coupled with improved but often expensive medical technologies used to treat increasingly complex conditions."

The analysis also showed a fifth of Queensland's registered health workforce was approaching, or at, retirement age.

Opposition Leader Steven Miles called for the urgent release of the plan to attract the necessary workers.

"The best time for a workforce plan was a year ago. The second best time is today," he said.

"It's now been a year today since the LNP promised a health workforce plan, and in that year, all we have heard from them is excuses."

Mr Nicholls assured the work was ongoing.

"We're doing the proper planning around the workforce plan, but we're not letting the grass grow under our feet."

It comes as Training Minister Ros Bates announced an expansion to the government's free nursing program, with a further 2,000 TAFE places available.