Health chiefs look Down Under to fill staff shortfall
A HEALTH board is spending more than £20,000 sending managers to Australia in a bid to tackle a deepening staffing crisis.
The NHS Grampian team will attend a series of jobs fairs during a three-week recruitment drive in various cities.
In May, it was reported that there were 430 nursing and midwifery vacancies at hospitals across the region. And last week the health board admitted that patients requiring heart surgery were being offered treatment in Newcastle.
A four-strong delegation will travel to Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth in November trying to tempt nurses and midwives to work in the north-east of Scotland. They will also visit hospitals to learn about their care systems.
Health chiefs say the costly trip will prove less expensive than using employment agencies abroad. But critics have cast doubt over whether the project is the most effective use of taxpayers’ money.
Tory health spokesman Miles Briggs said: ‘Many health professional representative bodies are already warning SNP
‘Prove it was value for money’
ministers that more and more staff are looking to leave Scotland and the retention of already over-worked and stressed NHS staff is an issue which ministers need to address.
‘What will be crucial is that, once this project is complete, health bosses can prove it was value for money.’
The health board hopes that a clampdown by the Australian government on temporary work visas may encourage British medical staff living there whose spouses are affected by the ruling to consider coming home.
A spokesman for NHS Grampian said: ‘We have the highest number of nurse vacancies of any board in Scotland and we need to consider new and creative ways to fill those vacancies.
‘We have used recruitment agencies overseas previously; this is an extremely expensive option and [this trip] may prove to be better value for money.’
The Scottish Government last night said fears surrounding Brexit meant health boards were ‘facing unnecessary barriers to finding staff’ from Europe.