Sustainability of Australia’s Health System: A Leadership Perspective
By Michael De Santis
Partner, Future Leadership
On 16 May 2025 the Special Commission of Inquiry into Healthcare Funding tabled 41 recommendations across twelve priority areas—activity-based funding (ABF), digital integration, procurement reform and workforce strategy chief among them.
In parallel, NSW Health remains bound to halve operational emissions by 2030 and reach net-zero by 2050. Funding reform and environmental sustainability have, for the first time, fused into a single strategic imperative: capital allocation, clinical excellence and planetary stewardship must advance together or fail together.
In the ever-evolving landscape of healthcare, sustainability remains a paramount concern. As a leadership specialist in the health ecosystem, it is well known that a sound pathway to a sustainable health system lies in nationally aligned strategic investment, workforce development, and efficient resource management.
The catch? It’s easy to think about sustainability when you’re thriving, it’s tougher when facing into head winds.
The traditional healthcare improvement loop—pilot, evaluate, scale—cannot match the speed of climate change or fiscal compression. Rising heat events are already increasing cardiac admissions; supply-chain disruptions are inflating consumable costs; insurer-led vertical integration threatens patient choice and coordinated care. Line-item approaches such as LED retrofits or recycling pilots, while laudable, remain insufficient unless reinforced by systemic leadership capability uplift.
As with any change process this will require significant leadership effort and input across every corner of the system. To future-proof the system, it is essential to invest in long-term future that address talent attraction, upskilling and retention issues. This includes not only financial investment but also the development of a robust workforce through targeted operational, performance and culture building strategies.
Using the NSW Health system as an example, our data shows that the rate of senior executives changing roles in the NSW Health sector was almost 10 percent in the last 12 months alone. With an average industry tenure of just 2.6 years for senior leaders, ensuring impactful stewardship is both complex and essential. Globally, CEOs are leaving their posts at a record rate this year, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which tracks executive departures. Among U.S. businesses, 2,221 CEOs bid farewell last year, the most since Challenger started tallying the departures in 2002.
So how do we set about ensuring more sustainable leadership to catalyse sustainable growth in the system?
1. Future Facing Development Programs
Developing a robust workforce requires comprehensive programs that focus on continuous education and professional development. By offering training especially in frontier areas such as AI models, Circular Economy or Psychosocial Safety via workshops, certification courses, and advanced degree opportunities, healthcare professionals can enhance their skills and stay updated with the latest medical practices. Our own Future Leadership Advisory team work extensively within healthcare offering tailored leadership development programs, executive coaching, and capability assessments. This team development not only improves the quality of care but also boosts satisfaction and retention.
A recent BCG article titled The Transformation Paradox highlights the need to invest in ‘always-on’ capability building to keep workforces moving ahead of constant change, citing ‘just as companies need to transform more frequently to adapt to new realities and to pre-empt disruption, it’s crucial to create a culture in which change is seen as the norm’, and development is an ongoing part of every role.
2. Mentorship and Coaching Programs
Mentorship programs and initiatives such as leadership coaching circles are essential for employee growth and retention. Transformation happens through conversation and only moves as fast as the speed of trust. The recent Gallup State of the Global Workplace: 2025 Report reveals that teaching leaders effective coaching techniques can boost team performance by 20 to 28%. Some managers have a natural gift for inspiring and developing people, but many do not.
Senior healthcare professionals can mentor junior staff, providing guidance and support to navigate their careers. Our Future Leadership Coaching programs can prepare mid-level professionals for advanced roles, ensuring a succession plan that nurtures future leaders within the organisation.
3. Competitive Compensation and Benefits Packages
A hot topic of discussion across the system at present is rewards and benefits, and there is undoubtedly some natural variability across the Australian system; delving into the reasons behind this is another article in itself. The perspective that attracting and retaining top talent necessitates competitive compensation and benefits packages is another area of undoubted agreement. This includes not just salary increments but also additional comprehensive health benefits, retirement plans, and other perks such as flexible working hours and childcare support. By addressing the financial and importantly personal needs of employees, the health system can ensure higher levels of employee satisfaction and loyalty.
Deloitte research into global healthcare trends shows that health care finance leaders are looking beyond cost control to find more innovative ways to incentivise leaders and grow operating margins. As health care organisations continue grappling with dual workforce challenges: an increase in employee turnover and burnout, coupled with increasing labour cost, the strategic use of technology and innovative practices can help leadership improve efficiency and foster a greater sense of high performance within the health care workforce. The findings show significant time savings for specific job roles with the appropriate use of technology and job redesign. For instance, revenue cycle professionals can save up to 50% of their time, and nursing roles can see time savings of up to 20%.
Each of these initiatives is critical to cultivate and prioritise future leadership capabilities. These are the mindsets, behaviours, experiences and skillsets that anticipate disruption, synthesise social-environmental-financial value and enable cultures that learn at the pace of change. They are life-long, transferrable and privilege long-range scenario interpretation over quarterly KPI delivery.
What are the Future Leadership Capabilities you need to prioritise on your leadership team? Try our interactive capability card selector game to help you figure this out. And then give me a call to chat!
The health industry stands at a pivotal junction. The path to sustainable, high-quality healthcare will be shaped not by streamlined processes, technology adoption or efficiencies driving costs down. Health will be transformed by the calibre of leaders we appoint and the capabilities we cultivate. The next decade belongs to those fluent in both health-economics and planetary health.
Michael De Santis is a Partner at Future Leadership and a recognised expert in health system leadership and workforce transformation. This article draws on current trends, national inquiry findings, and Future Leadership’s on-the-ground experience to support health sector leaders in shaping sustainable, future-ready organisations.
