More practitioners than ever want to work in Australian health systems

17 Aug 2023

There are now 877,119 health practitioners registered in Australia across all professions, which is an 18 per cent increase on the 744,437 practitioners registered in June 2019, before the pandemic.

New Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) data reveals an average of 5,270 new practitioners a month were registered to work in the nation’s health systems in the 12 months up to July 2023.

The health workforce boost includes almost 3,000 new nurses and 700 new medical practitioners a month, fuelled by Australian graduates and internationally trained health workers. 

The total number of psychologists in the workforce has also grown by more than a fifth since the pandemic. While the demand for mental health services remains high, the strong psychologist workforce is helping to address one of the nation’s most pressing areas of need.

Recommended measures to further accelerate the workforce growth will be unveiled later this year when an independent review of overseas health practitioner regulatory settings, known as the Kruk review, provides a roadmap to attract and safely register even more internationally trained healthcare professionals.

Ahpra CEO Martin Fletcher said it was expected that the review would build on actions already being rolled out, including cutting the time taken to assess registration applications, increasing exam places for internationally qualified registered nurses, and consulting on greater flexibility for practitioners to meet English language requirements.

‘It is wonderful to see so many thousands of health practitioners not only wanting to come to Australia, but who are now passing all the necessary checks and arriving to provide the care patients need,’ Mr Fletcher said.

‘But there is always more than can be done to ensure Australia has an adequate supply of safe health professionals.

‘We are working closely with governments and employers to identify areas of specific need, which allows us to escalate applications for registration where critical health workforce vacancies need to be addressed.’

Since January 2022, more than 27,000 internationally trained practitioners have been registered to work in Australia, including 15,812 nurses and midwives, 5,918 medical practitioners, and 5,398 allied health professionals.

To help support continued growth within the healthcare sector, Ahpra and the National Boards will today open a four-week public consultation seeking stakeholder views on two of the Kruk review interim report’s recommendations:

• expanding the range of countries recognised in English language skills registration standards (where there is evidence that citizens educated in these countries have the English language skills needed for practice in Australia), and
• changing one element of the English test results accepted by the National Boards that regulate registered health practitioners.

Information about the consultation, which closes on 13 September, is available on the Consultations page of the Ahpra website.

Ahpra and the National Boards have also published new resources for international practitioners, including a flyer that is now being shared by other agencies, including the Department of Home Affairs, with overseas health workers showing an interest in coming to Australia.

Australia’s nursing workforce has increased by more than 18 per cent in recent years, with 453,515 registered nurses in June 2023 compared to 383,509 in June 2019. 

During June and July 2023, 7,446 nurses applied for registration – 37 per cent more than the 5,409 who applied for registration in the same period of 2019.

The number of registered medical practitioners has increased by 15 per cent since June 2019, with 136,742 doctors now registered to work.

The psychologist workforce has grown by more than 20 percent since June 2019, with 46,347 psychologists holding registration as of June 2023.

Psychology Board of Australia Chair Rachel Phillips said ‘At a time when their services are needed more than ever, we welcome the influx of new psychologists.’

Data in this media release does not include practitioners who were on the temporary pandemic response sub-register (2020–23). 

Data tables:

Table 1. Newly registered practitioners - Applications finalised with a registration outcome:

Table 2: Applications for registration received:

Notes:

1. Paramedics commenced participation in the National Scheme from 1 December 2018.

Table 3: Total number of registered practitioners:

Notes:

1. Registrants who hold dual registration as both a nurse and a midwife.
2. Paramedics commenced participation in the National Scheme from 1 December 2018.

Table 4: International practitioners registered since January 2022 (including TTMR)

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