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There are a range of other allied professionals who provide specialist care, either focused on treating specific conditions, or on specific body systems. Our specialist allied professions include:

  • Anaesthetic technicians, who support anaesthetists with administering and managing anaesthetisation.
  • Radiation therapists, who support radiation-based therapies, particularly cancer care.
  • Clinical physiologists, who do things like test and monitor lung function, or perform dialysis.
  • Cardiac physiologists, who specialise in monitoring and managing heart function.
  • Perfusionists, who specialise in using heart-lung machines to support circulation and breathing, as a replacement for patients’ own heart and lungs.
  • Audiologists, who specialise in ear and hearing disorders.
  • Podiatrists, who specialise in foot, ankle and lower limb care, including contributing to care for severe diabetes.
  • Dietitians, who are experts in diet and nutrition.
  • Orthotists and prosthetists, who specialise in the use of braces, splints and prosthetics.

These professionals support care in a range of settings and contexts, and often work alongside medical specialists focused on the same areas of care – particularly as people’s care needs get more acute.

 

 

Today
Our estimates of current FTE shortages across the health sector, based on current ways of working, are around:

By 2033
Based on current trends, models of care and technology, if we do not change how we work, we estimate that by 2033 we would need additional FTE across the health sector of around:

Anaesthetic technicians

 

+170

16.1% of our total need

+130

13.9% on top of current pipeline

Radiation therapists

 

+40

8.6% of our total need

+60

14.7% on top of current pipeline

Clinical physiologists

 

Data not available

+90

24.3% on top of current pipeline

Audiologists

 

+10
(Health NZ only)

10.2% of our total need

No available model

Podiatrists

 

+120

23.5% of our total need

+30

6.3% on top of current pipeline

Dietitians

 

+40

7.0% of our total need

+80

13.8% on top of current pipeline

The opportunity

Like other relatively specialised allied workforces, changes to models of care over coming years are likely to lead to more growth in most of these professions as we seek to use them more widely. Examples of the changes we expect include:

  • A growing use of clinical physiologists to support better medical management in hospitals, and to respond to improvements in technology which will make it easier for us to monitor and manage organ function.
  • Greater use of dietitians in community settings, recognising the role of diet in public and population health – and in avoiding mortality (death) and morbidity (illness) resulting from diet and lifestyle decisions.
  • Mounting need for podiatry care due to the burden of disease from diabetes – which is likely to increase as people age, and as Indian and Pacific peoples (who are more likely to have diabetes) come to represent a growing proportion of the population.

These shifts offer opportunities to provide whānau with better care, and to make more efficient use of our workforce – but will require that we address today’s shortages, and add more growth.

What will it take?

Over the next three years we want to take advantage of today’s relatively low vacancy rates in some areas to focus on the opportunity to strengthen models of care, by getting our qualification and training design right to grow numbers for the future – and to support further specialisation for the allied professionals we have today.

Where we do have services with a lot of demand today, we need an acute focus on building workforce sustainability, to ensure our workforce is right-sized – to ensure our services perform well for patients and whānau.

Action What we'll do
1.1 Secure educational training capacity Secure 100 new training places for students in tertiary training programmes where we need growth – including for sonography, radiation therapy, oral health therapy and podiatry.
1.2 Boost Health NZ’s placement capacity Expand and improve Health NZ capacity for allied and specialist nursing placements, including for anaesthetic technicians, oral health therapists, medical imaging technologists, podiatrists, cardiac sonography and cancer nursing.
1.3 Match tertiary training capacity to future need Review all health system training volumes for which we have modelling against expected workforce demand by 2035; and outline required tertiary training growth to meet demand.
1.4 Streamline tertiary training programmes Re-design tertiary training pathways (working with the tertiary sector) to align training times to global norms, introduce more flexible pathways, and address student attraction and attrition.
1.7 Alleviate financial pressure in training Establish a fund for students suffering significant financial hardship while in their final years of health training to support them to complete – targeting workforces with significant current or anticipated shortages.
3.2 Establish and grow assistant roles Establish new allied assistant roles with associated models of care.
4.4 Establish advanced practice roles Establish new advanced scope practice pathways to make the most of allied capabilities, starting with physiotherapy and radiation therapy.