Rural Health Workforce Support Activity

Overview

The Australian Government funds Rural Workforce Agencies (RWAs) in each state and the Northern Territory to implement the Rural Health Workforce Support Activity (RHWSA) to deliver a range of activities aimed at improving the health workforce access, quality and sustainability of the rural health workforce. The objective of the RHWSA is to contribute to addressing health workforce shortages and maldistribution in regional, rural and remote Australia and aims to:• meet current and future community health workforce needs through workforce planning, and • use workforce planning to identify hot spot towns and provide support through the access, quality and sustainability elements of the program. The main focus of the RHWSA is on improving the access, quality and sustainability of the regional, rural and remote health workforce provided through the following three program elements:• Health Workforce Access Program;• Improving Workforce Quality Program; and• Building a Sustainable Workforce Program.  The RHWSA Grant Opportunity extends the program for an additional year and provides funding up to $26.1m over the 2020-21 financial year. This is a closed non-competitive grant opportunity and the Rural Workforce Agencies will be invited to apply.