Health’s dire diagnosis

Specialist shortage could cost taxpayers $10m

TAXPAYERS will be forced to pay more than $10 million to send public health patients to the private sector if specialists for five key roles are not found.

Gold Coast Health said it had unsuccessfully searched Australia and New Zealand in the past “few years” to fill the spots and had been forced to list the high-paying jobs with international recruiting agency Harvey Nash.

The positions are for an ear, nose and throat specialist; ophthalmology specialist; plastic and reconstructive surgery specialist; maternal and foetal medicine specialist; and a director of obstetrics. The annual salary for each ranges from $166,872 to $232,432.

Until the positions are filled, taxpayers will have to pay through the nose to send public patients from Gold Coast Health to private doctors.

“We’ve made repeated attempts to recruit locally, in particular specialties over the last few years, but we are still short of the doctors the Gold Coast desperately needs,” a Gold Coast Health spokeswoman said.

“We have a responsibility to maximise the benefit of public funding and make no apology for exploring all options to recruit the doctors we need.

“We will spend in excess of $10 million this financial year sending public patients to the private sector to ensure they are seen within clinically recommended time frames.”

Human resource management expert and Griffith University Associate Professor Mohan Thite said Australia’s shortage of medical specialists emanated from medical associations’ reluctance to train new professionals.

“While the demand is increasing, supply is shrinking,” he said. “They have a vested interest in keeping the shortage as acute as possible.

“This is the most soughtafter profession.

“Why are we creating this artificial shortage?”

Dr Thite said because it could take up to 15 years to train specialists, there was no “Band-Aid fix”.

The academic and industrial relations researcher said foreign workers dominated the Australian health workforce in regional and rural areas, with a large number coming from China and India.

“It is the foreign workforce that is keeping the Australian community healthy,” he said.

Dr Thite said while it would always be easier and less expensive to recruit locally, organisations like Gold Coast Health had no choice but to look overseas for specialists.

However, he said recruiting health professionals from foreign countries also brought a number of risks, including a diminished ability to test credentials and an occasional lack of “cultural understanding”.