The Demand of Rural Workforce

Report prepared for

ACBE100: Academic Communication in Business and Economics

Lecturer: Frank Conrow

The Demand of Rural Workforce

for Healthcare

 [pic 1]

Prepared by Chenxi Liao (Crystal)

Student ID: LICPD1301

ACBE Group: 16

Wednesday, 15, May, 2013                         Word Count = 1,200

Table of Contents

1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………….. 1
2. Glossary……………………………………………………………………………. 1
3. Healthcare and the Rural Workforce…………………………………………....

3.1 The Demand of the Rural Workforce for Healthcare………………………

3.2 Barriers to Meet the Demand of the Rural Workforce for Healthcare……

3.3 Ways to Meet the Demand of the Rural Workforce for Healthcare……….

1. Conclusions…………………………………………………………………………
2. References…………………………………………………………………………..

1. Introduction

The topic for this report is healthcare for the rural workforce. Currently, the healthcare in rural areas is below the metropolitan standards and cannot meet the demand of the rural workforce. There are several driving factors for this situation: more mental and physical issues that the rural workforce have owing to the aging of population, the workplace accidents and the pressure of work; imperfect healthcare for the workforce in rural Australia; and the decreasing amount of general practitioners work there due to the longer working time. Consequently, it is urgent to better the healthcare condition for the rural workforce. To clarify the demand of rural workforce for healthcare, the microeconomic principle, the theory of supply and demand, is used. This report covers the current demand of rural workforce for healthcare, barriers to meet the demand of the rural workforce for healthcare and ways to meet the rural workforce’s demand for healthcare.

1. Glossary

The theory of supply and demand

Law of demand is when the price goes up, other things are not changed, the quantity of demanded would goes down, and vice versa (Taggart, Findlay & Parkin, 2010).

1. Healthcare and the Rural Workforce

The workforce’s demand for healthcare in rural Australia is not been met, even if Meagher (2008) reports that the hospital performance improves as demand for health services continue to increase. Makinen et al (2000, cited in Ensor and Cooper, 2004) state that the rural workforce compared to the metropolitan workforce always gets less benefit from healthcare for a long time. Subsequently, Australian Health Workforce Advisory Committee et al (2005) claim that the rural workforce calls for better healthcare, in particular the better hospital infrastructure and full-equipped health services. This situation obviously indicates that the current supply of healthcare cannot meet the rural workforce’s demand for it. With the increasing demand of the rural workforce for healthcare and several barriers deter from satisfying the rural workforce’s demand for it, ways to meet the rural workforce’s demand are list in this report.

1. The Demand of the Rural Workforce for Healthcare

In rural Australia, the demands of workforce for healthcare increases sharply while the supply of healthcare increase only slightly (Selected Health Occupations: Australia, 2006).

                       Figure 1          Growing Demand on Hospital Services[pic 2]

                   Source: South Australia’s Health Care Plan 2007-2016, Table 3, 2007

Figure 1 reveals the growing demand on hospital services (The South Australian Government, 2007). The vertical axis represents emergency department attendances (ED attendances). As revealed by this figure, the demand of hospital services stably increased from 461,000 to 496,000 between the year 2003 and 2006 after a slightly decrease in previous years. The upward trend indicated that if the rural workforce had more health issues and required more healthcare than before, the demand for ED attendances would keep rising. In other words, the hospital admission would rise in rural Australia in the following years.

In terms of the emergency department, the demand of the rural workforce for it increases. The South Australian Government (2007) says that the rural workforce demands a larger capacity of the emergency department since acute hospital beds are often lacked in rural hospitals. The South Australian Government (2007) also says the rural workforce has the greater demand for the community-based care through healthcare centres, in-home care and hospital support packages which allow people to gain the treatment without going out. Moreover, Kosmina (2005) states the rural workforce needs more availability of the specialist rehabilitation and palliative care services in order to help people recover. In addition, the rural workforce needs more supports to detect chronic diseases early, such as liver cirrhosis, diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis, to start early intervention to keep people health (Kosmina, 2005). Therefore, the rural workforce demands better emergency department to cope with growing emergency injuries. With regard to selective surgery, such as orthopaedics, gastrointestinal, ear, nose and throat surgeries, the rural workforce especially requests the procedures to be more promptness. On the one hand, it is contended by the South Australian Government (2007) that the rural workforce requests the high-volume capacity of elective surgery. On the other hand, the rural workforce requests the elective surgery with lower complexity. As a matter of fact, the reason for this request is that the rural workforce believes greater selective surgery can bring a more enjoyable life. In the aspect of specialist services, the rural workforce asks for high-level specialists. Not only the quality of specialist care should be higher, but also specialist services should be safe and careful since general practitioners (GPs) cannot meed the whole demand of the rural workforce for healthcare (The South Australian Government, 2007). Regarding the aspect of mental healthcare, the rural workforce requires most appropriate mental care at the most appropriate atmosphere with the increasing pressure of work and life. The South Australian Government (2007) says that enough and suitable intermediate care beds are required; then, 24-hour mental healthcare must be ensured; besides, the priority should be identified, for instance, people with serious and complicated mental issues should be treated first; moreover, the enough quantity of mental health nurse practitioners should be equipped. In fact, only those appropriate mental cares can deal with the broader and worse mental issues in the group of the rural workforce. In brief, all essential demands above for healthcare from the rural workforce indicate the limited supply of healthcare and the larger demand for healthcare in rural Australia.