Strategy on a page

Spotlight: focusing on recovery and new ways of working

The COVID-19 pandemic brought significant and sustained change to Victoria’s health system and placed unprecedented pressure on the health workforce³.

Victoria’s healthcare workers adapted quickly – trying new roles, skills and service delivery models to meet rapidly changing needs in managing a novel disease under ongoing pressure.

In addition, we expanded and embedded technological methods of care, which quickly became routine.

During the pandemic, the healthcare workforce demonstrated ongoing flexibility and adaptability.

Examples include:

• rapidly expanding training to support new people to work in intensive care and emergency departments
• extended team-based models of care enabling healthcare workers to perform to the top of their scope
• scaling up testing and vaccination services with new professional groups.

The pandemic also delivered the long-desired expansion of telehealth as a core component of service delivery. This significantly expands a clinician’s potential range and their ability to meet community needs.

Services such as remote monitoring through the Victorian Virtual Emergency Department have quickly become integral to Victoria’s health system, allowing people to access flexible services that work with their needs.

As we look to the next 10 years, we will harness the dedication, skill, responsiveness and innovation of our people.

This 10-year workforce strategy underpins this by boosting our focus on the experience of our healthcare workforces. We want to ensure our people have the systems and support that enable them to do their best work.