PHN Cooperative (2023): Response to Consultation on Thin Markets in Regional and Remote Australia

This document was submitted to support the efforts of the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care’s Health Workforce Division to develop responses to thin markets in regional and remote locations across Australia.

The PHN Cooperative’s recommendations are to:

Establish a unified model and definition of the spectrum of capacity exhibited by thin markets;
Set out defining parameters for thin markets that can be gathered through repeatable data-driven assessment processes to establish consistency of definition;
Establish a set of core design principles for methodologies/approaches to thin markets based on successful models that PHNs have observed/incepted, that can then be adapted or innovated upon to address localised context; and
Key enablers of success in the short- to medium-term alongside areas of concern, barriers or implementation that will affect thin market methodologies.