Western Australia’s Health Minister says her government is willing to get nurses from overseas under the new Albanese government.
In response to a question during the budget estimates hearing in the state parliament, Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said her the state would prioritise with the Albanese government for overseas nurses to be given fast-tracked citizenship if they were willing to move to the state to boost its COVID-depleted health staff.
The state has been facing a shortage of health workers. It recorded six more deaths of people infected with COVID-19 and 12,114 new cases on Tuesday.
According to ABC, Ms Sanderson did not elaborate on shortages and how many full-time equivalent staff were needed. She said it was incredibly difficult to give a “global figure”, as there were 800 health facilities across the state and 55,000 staff.
“In the two years until March 2022, the number of full-time equivalent staff had increased by 15.6 per cent,” said Ms Sanderson.
Read: Western Australia opens up for offshore skilled migrants
Ms Sanderson said it currently took 18 months for a nurse to immigrate from the UK, but England’s National Health Service (NHS) was more competitive.
“The reality is the NHS is providing a fast-track process with a guarantee of citizenship at the end of it for you and your family, and we need to be in a position to compete with that,” she said.
“And that will be a priority discussion with the new government.”
The state’s Health director-general David Russell-Weisz told parliament the specific areas of shortage were midwives and theatre nurses, especially in rural and regional areas.
