- The Crisafulli Government has released the Queensland Health Workforce Gap Analysis Reports which exposes the depths of Labor's Health Crisis, and the former Government's failure to deliver a health workforce.
- The Reports are the most comprehensive health workforce analysis in Queensland's history and expose the workforce gaps left after Labor's decade of decline.
- The gap analysis provides a strong foundation for a robust, actionable, and coordinated systemwide health workforce plan that delivers health services when Queenslanders need them.
- The Crisafulli Government is restoring health services when Queenslanders need them most with more doctors, nurses and paramedics.
The Crisafulli Government has released the Queensland Health Workforce Gap Analysis Reports which expose the staggering depths of the Queensland Health Crisis left by the former Labor Government.
The former Labor Government's failure to secure a pipeline of health workers has had major impacts, particularly on rural and remote Queensland, with persistent workforce gaps forcing critical community services to close - including birthing services at Biloela and Cooktown – since 2022.
As part of the analysis, Queensland Health has found major workforce shortages left by Labor - and no cohesive pipeline for future health workers - with key findings including:
- Regional workforce gaps are as high as 50% in some health professions, including allied health roles such as neuropsychologists and sonographers.
- There is a 21% gap in rural and remote medical workforce.
- 11% of identified workforce gaps have persisted for more than 12 months.
- 20% of Queensland's registered health workforce is at or approaching retirement age, including 18% of nurses.
- 72% of workforce growth of the past 10 years has occurred primarily in metro areas.
Queensland Health will now consult on these findings with frontline health staff over the next 30 days, before developing a health workforce action plan to map out how the 46,000 extra staff needed to end Labor's Health Crisis will be delivered by 2032.
The Crisafulli Government is boosting the frontline health workforce with an additional 4,500 health workers including doctors, paramedics and nurses in 2025-26, as part of the record Health Budget's $24.1 billion investment into Hospital and Health Service operations.
Minister for Health and Ambulance Services Tim Nicholls said the Crisafulli Government was delivering the Easier Access to Health Services Plan, for health services when you need them.
"We have a mountain to climb to deliver the health workers needed now and into the future, but this work is the next step in healing Labor's Health Crisis," Minister Nicholls said.
"This exposes just how severe Labor's Health Crisis had become, and Labor had no deliverable plan to secure the 46,000 extra health workers needed.
"Having health services when you need them in Queensland means more doctors, more nurses and more paramedics. This is the work needed to deliver them and heal Labor's Health Crisis, just as we promised."
