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Autumn 2005

Allied Health Conference Report by Helen Burnet

TIM JACOBSON and I attended the 6th National Allied Health Conference in Melbourne in February. The conference was entitled “Innovation or Extinction? Adapting roles and practice.” It was an excellent opportunity for HACSU as a major sponsor to be involved, with many of the sessions centred on workplace issues.

There was a plethora of relevant presentations for health professions.

The conference catered for many issues affecting a number of professions.

Keynote speaker, Deborah Humphris, a UK academic who heads up the Health Care Innovation Unit, talked of changes in the structure of the English model of healthcare to meet the continuing changes in demographics (ageing population and fewer numbers of people entering the health workforce), technological and cultural shifts.

Sometimes innovative changes were introduced at the undergraduate level - course integration, or course content - that better equipped students with skills they would need in the workplace.

Other changes to work practice such as multi-skilling or blurring of professional boundaries were also discussed.

Talks looked at the way undergraduate courses are delivered, course closures and viability of professions, what sort of graduates the schools are producing, and how to meet the demands of the community.

Many examples presented by speakers were as a response to needs at a specific site, because of recruitment and retention issues.

Many of the same problems we face in Tasmania were covered in detail.

UK Occupational Therapist, Hazel Mackey, spoke of a lack of OT's in one area of northern England and the introduction of para-professional "OT support workers". Their role was to treat less complex cases referred by OT's, with a greater responsibility than OT Aides.

Another example included a Physiotherapy triage system for Orthopaedic patients, which reduced waiting times for surgery and enabled faster treatment of outpatients.

Other examples identified multi-professional teams and the need for effective communication in patient/client care.

Not all ideas went down well, with the 300-strong audience of health professionals.

Stephen Duckett from Latrobe University predicted that ways of teaching would change dramatically over the next 15-20 years, and the concept of health professionals could be quite different.

He forecast there would be more para-professionals such as the support worker already described, with degrees, and an increase in allied health assistant courses though TAFE's.

Professions like Podiatry with small graduate numbers and courses closing are expensive for universities to run.

Universities will walk away from running these courses unless there is pressure on them to invest in funding for these and other small health professional courses.

With little coordination between the education and health sectors in Australia (unlike in the NZ and UK where health departments drive the number of graduates), there is little wonder that extinction for some professions, certainly as they are practiced currently, is on the cards if we don't produce graduates to meet the needs of the community.

Not surprisingly, recruitment and retention were common themes throughout the conference.

It is clear that a strong union voice had a significant effect on what has been achieved by health professionals. It is at the industrial (workplace) level where implementing change is becoming increasingly important.

The link between professional representation and industrial expertise will become increasingly more important as these changes are debated.

Helen Burnet
President
HACSU Health Professionals Sub-Branch

For more information please contact me
helen.burnet@dhhs.tas.gov.au