Health workforce redesign in Australia: implications for health care professional liability and the provision of professional indemnity insurance.
The Productivity Commission's research report entitled Australia's Health Workforce, which was commissioned by the Commonwealth Government and released in January 2006, has been key to recent health workforce policy development. Many of the Productivity Commission's proposals have been endorsed by the Council of Australian Governments and a National Health Workforce Taskforce established to drive change. Surprisingly, the report gave little attention to medico-legal factors that may impact upon workforce supply and consequently may represent a barrier to workforce redesign. This column examines the implications of health workforce redesign and in particular the potential impact of task substitution and task delegation on professional liability and the provision of professional indemnity insurance for private sector health care professionals in Australia. It also identifies and addresses some other medico-legal issues not considered in the report.
Keaney
Megan
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D001315:Australia; D006280:Health Workforce / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D007351:Insurance, Liability; D016365:Liability, Legal