Rural Health Workforce Australia
Rural Health Workforce Australia (RHWA) is the peak body for the Rural Workforce Agencies (RWAs), which operate in each State and the Northern Territory of Australia.
The mission of RHWA is to support RWAs to achieve a high quality, accessible, medical and related health workforce throughout rural and remote Australia.
RHWA provides information and policy advice on health workforce issues through the provision of workforce data analysis, planning and research, program development and evaluation.
RHWA also has contractual obligations to support organisations that are not incorporated, such as the National Rural Health Network, which represents the interests of undergraduate medical and allied health students.
RHWA has 6 key activity areas:
- Advocacy and representation on behalf of RWAs---to improve access to healthcare in rural and remote Australia and increase meaningful representation at a national level.
- National partnerships---creating effective partnerships with national organisations that have common roles in health workforce policy.
- Development of national workforce policy---on issues identified and agreed as important to healthcare access, whether initiating policy or responding to policy issues.
- Information---collected from data and a key product that will influence policy.
- Research---with a focus on informing national policy and priorities.
- Supporting programs---which RWAs are contracted to implement, and advising on their impact.
RHWA was formerly known as the Australian Rural and Remote Workforce Agencies Group (ARRWAG).