Immediate action to address Australia’s skilled health workforce crisis is needed or we run the risk of a health system with limited access and reduced quality of care, says Australian Private Hospitals Australia (APHA) CEO Michael Roff.
There is global competition for health workers and other countries are leading the way offering pathways to citizenship, training opportunities and cash incentives to bring in their needed overseas workforce – and they are not slowing down in their efforts.
“The private hospital sector is feeling the pinch. In 2020 our hospitals were worried they wouldn’t have enough PPE (personal protective equipment) for their nurses, now they are worried they won’t have enough nurses for the PPE.
“Australia needs to act now on this issue. We are already being overtaken by countries who are prepared to go the extra mile to attract workers,” he said.
Mr Roff said examples of incentives offered by other countries include reducing costs to employers, making health and care workers priority workers and fast-tracking visa applications.
“According to the UK Nursing and Midwifery Council, these measures saw the international health workforce in the UK increase by 23,000 in the 12 months to March 2022 – breaking records in international recruitment.”
But the UK is not the only country sweetening the deal to get more health workers through their borders. France is offering a fast track to full citizenship to frontline migrant health workers and in Canada, qualified nurses have a fast-track to residency and provincial governments have also stepped in to train foreign nurses or assist them to meet licence to practice requirements. British Columbia has set aside $24 million to help 1500 overseas trained nurses with English language testing and educational upgrading, while Quebec will invest up to $65 million to train 1000 foreign nurses.
Meanwhile, the province of Ontario has registered almost 4000 overseas trained nurses as of June 2022 – a 132 percent increase compared to the previous year.
Mr Roff said the Australian Government had to step in to offer prospective nurses and health workers the option of a future in Australia, while also building a home-grown workforce for the future.
APHA is seeking:
- Faster visa processing
- A 12 month moratorium on labour market testing for health workers
- A pathway to permanent residency for skilled migrants in healthcare
- Funding to help with registration and training requirements
- Flexibility in deployment of skilled migrants so they can move between roles
- A moratorium on fees charged to employers for sponsoring skilled migrant health wokers
- Increased timeliness and reduced costs of AHPRA registration for applicants
- Temporary removal of age limits for skilled migration and working holiday visas for health workers.
