From 15th – 17th July, our researchers joined clinicians, researchers, academics, and policymakers from cross Australia for the 12th biennial “Are You Remotely Interested…?” Conference, held in the campus of the Murtupuni Centre for Rural & Remote Health, James Cook University, Mt Isa, Queensland.
With the three plenary sessions, together with several panels, the key discussion over the three days highlighted the importance of strengthening the health workforce in rural and remote areas for equity and systemic approaches from policy to practice to overcome multiple institutional and workforce barriers.
Our researchers (Professor Stephanie Topp & Dr Thu Nguyen) contributed to the conversation in this space with the presentation titled “Short-term fixes, long-term gaps: Addressing rural health workforce challenges in Queensland”. Their research showed that despite substantial investment on improving rural health, especially via the Stronger Rural Health Strategy (2018-2029), the Australia’s and Queensland’s rural health workforce policies remain inefficient due to the lack of policy integration and alignment and narrow framing of health workforce policy domains. The research pointed out that Queensland’s rural health workforce policy landscape urgently needs a strategic pivot from fragmented short-term solutions toward integrated, coherent, long-term strategies.
The HWF and Equity Policy Hub acknowledges the Kalkatunggu people, the traditional Custodians of the lands on which AYRI2025 was held. We pay our respects to Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
