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(07) 3105 7800
Turrbal and Jagera Country
Level 4, 348 Edward Street
Brisbane QLD 4000
Chair's Report
It is with pleasure I present the Health Workforce Queensland (HWQ) Chair’s Report for 2023-2024.
This has been a challenging and exciting time for Health Workforce Queensland as we focus ever harder on improving access to health services for remote, rural and Indigenous Queenslanders.
Recruiting doctors, allied health professionals and nurses to primary health care services is the basis to improving access. The large number of scholarships and bursaries, financial supports and education training and events provided by HWQ are an important contribution to growing the skillsets of existing practitioners and improving retention of the health workforce.
Our initiative to implement the ‘GROW Rural’ program is already showing the strong connection between rural immersion as a student, clinical placements, and commencement of employment in a remote and rural location.
HWQ continues to highlight areas of significant need with our Health Workforce Needs Assessment. HWQ’s Health Workforce Stakeholder Group provide robust advice as to ways to address these needs.
I would like to thank the directors of HWQ for their support and direction to the agency in the past year. I would like to pay tribute to Naomi Blake for her excellent contribution to HWQ as she retires as a director after 10 years, particularly in her role of Chair of the Risk Management Committee.
The staff of HWQ are a great source of pride. Their altruism and dedication to the work of the agency inspires me. During the year we farewelled Sarah Venn, Executive Manager, Workforce and Service Planning, who has moved on to a more senior role in the Office of Rural and Remote Health at Queensland Health after 12 years with us. I wish her every success in her new role.
I thank Chris Mitchell and his leadership team for their management of the organisation and their enthusiasm for always improving HWQ’s effectiveness in meeting our core objective, better health for remote and rural, especially Indigenous Queenslanders.
Dr Ross Maxwell
Board Chair
