Disrupting the present to build a stronger health workforce for the future: A three-point agenda

Abstract

The health professional workforce in high-income countries is trained and organised today largely as it has been for decades. Yet health care professionals and their patients of the present and future require a different model for training and working. The present arrangements need a serious overhaul: not just change, but disruption to the institutions that underpin training and work organisation. This article outlines a three-point agenda for this, including: the need to reorganise workforce and care systems for multimorbidity; to reorient workforce training to build genuine inter-professionalism; and to place primary care at the apex of the professional hierarchy.