The Queensland health system must become more cost efficient or the state will face a huge budget blowout, the health minister warns.

A new report predicts continued staff shortages in the nation's public hospitals over the next 13 years.

Nurses will be most in demand, followed by doctors and midwives, in that order, the Health Workforce 2025 report predicts.

The nation's health ministers discussed the forecast during a Standing Council on Health meeting in Canberra on Friday.

Queensland Health Minister Lawrence Springborg says the report is a wake-up call.

"If we keep going at this rate without getting more efficiencies in the way we deliver health care, by about the year 2030 Queensland Health will consume the entire state budget and that's something we can't have happen," Mr Springborg told AAP.

He said the challenge will be how to employ more frontline staff to meet demand while remaining cost effective.

Queensland has brilliant health care for those who can access it, but different models of care are needed to avoid a cost blowout, he added.

"I think it's a really good wake-up call as to how we need to run health in the future," he said.