Canberra is enjoying a boom in occupational therapists, with registrations increasing at double the national rate.
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Midwifery was the only mainstream health profession with a higher rate of growth, up 13.5 per cent last financial year, with new university courses cited as the driver for both increases.
The number of OTs rose by 35 to 296 in the year to June, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency's annual report showed. This was a 13.4 per cent rise, compared with a 6 per cent national lift.
University of Canberra assistant professor Stephen Isbel said the creation of the masters of occupational therapy course, which he convenes, had paid off.
"Before the course was instigated in 2011, ACT Health – the biggest employer of OTs – had a problem getting enough, and the UC took a bit of risk," he said.
With no undergraduate OT courses in Canberra, the city had relied on interstate grads to fill places.
Assistant Professor Isbel, also the ACT division chair of peak industry body Occupational Therapy Australia, said nine students graduated in the first masters' cohort in 2013. There were 19 this year and would be 40 in 2017.
"Everyone we've followed up on has got a job and mostly in the local area, and across hospitals, health centres but also aged-care facilities that have never had an OT before," he said.
The number of midwives – excluding those jointly registered as nurse and midwife – rose by 12 in 2014-15. The number of dual registrants fell by 23 or 3.8 per cent, with both changes in line with national trends.
Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation ACT secretary Jenny Miragaya said the rise was likely due to the introduction of a direct-entry bachelor of midwifery at the University of Canberra, which had its first cohort graduating in 2011 and cut necessary study time by a year. Ms Miragaya said Canberra had a demand for midwifery expertise, which encouraged stand-alone midwife registrations. Nurse registrations rose by 2 per cent.
The other double-digit rises in health professionals were podiatrists (11.5 per cent) and Chinese medical practitioners (10.9 per cent). The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health practitioners doubled from two to four.
There was an overall 2.4 per cent increase across the ACT in the combined 16 fields of health professionals.
Apart from the dual nurse and midwife numbers, optometry was the only health profession to decline in registrations, down by one person.
