7 & 8 September 2006
TelstraClear Pacific Events Centre, Manukau City, Auckland

What was the Conference all about?

Workforce is the single most important challenge facing the New Zealand health system.  The ability to continue to provide services in their current form and be responsive to future population demands will be constrained by a shortage of workforce supply.  In addition, the way we do business in some parts of the sector needs to be more responsive to delivering models of care that are more responsive to changing technology and information, responding to the different needs of a diverse community.  The kind of health professional we need will also change.

The key themes of the Workforce Sustainability Conference will be to ask the question “what kind of workforce do we need in the future?” focusing on the following key themes:

• The drivers of workforce demand – although youthful when compared nationally, our population is rapidly ageing, health inequalities are deeply entrenched in some parts of our community, how future populations are likely to use health services in the future may change, our current models of care and how we use workforce in the health sector may also need to change to reflect this – how will we respond?
   
• The drivers of workforce supply – the health sector is dependent on an education system to supply our workforce but do they understand our needs? How do we connect and link with them to ensure they are providing the kind of trained health professional we need?  What are the regional and national enablers that need to support local relationships with education institutions? 

The conference will explore the challenges and opportunities of getting as close a match between the two dynamics.