With the World Health Organisation predicting that by
2030* there will be a global shortfall of 15 million health
workers, and with primary care in New Zealand already
desperately short of essential talent, leading healthcare
provider ProCare is starting to see some real progress via a
number of their proactive initiatives.
These
initiatives include both talent and workforce development
programmes domestically, but also include international
campaigns and recruitment strategies. Working in tandem with
this are the range of new innovations happening to the
makeup of the primary care workforce itself, with more
multi-disciplinary teams forming the teams within general
practices.
Matt Prestwood, GM of People and Culture at
ProCare says: “Having a strong, plentiful, but also
diverse workforce is essential to continuing to deliver the
most progressive, pro-active, and equitable health and
wellbeing services to our communities.
“As a result,
we’ve taken proactive and collaborative steps to ensure
the sustainability of our workforce with everything from
successful internships with Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei and
Auckland University, through to comprehensive nurse,
Practice Manager and GP training programmes. We have
exciting workforce support initiatives underway that are
aimed at reshaping and improving the experience of becoming
a general practitioner, in real and practical
terms.
“We’re also running ongoing global
recruitment drives to help top-up the talent we need in the
short-term, and are continuing to diversify the way in which
care can be delivered through blended models of virtual and
in-person employment,” he continues.
Bindi Norwell,
Group Chief Executive at ProCare says: “Pre-covid, one of
the biggest issues facing our network and the wider
healthcare sector was workforce shortages. Now that we’ve
seen a reduction in the number of covid cases and other
respiratory issues such as influenza, there is more capacity
to look ahead to try and problem solve around some of the
big issues facing the sector such as workforce
shortages.
“We also need to face issues head on,
such as pay parity for nurses. When nurses in hospitals are
paid more than primary care nurses, despite having the same
qualifications, training and responsibilities as their Te
Whatu Ora counterparts, it is little wonder primary care is
struggling to recruit and retain nurses,” she
continues.
“However, we know that organisations
can’t do this alone. What’s needed is a national,
industry-wide focus on workforce. Alongside this, we need
the government to look at issues such as making it easier
for doctors and nurses to immigrate to New Zealand and to
give them faster access to residency,” she
concludes.
* https://www.who.int/health-topics/health-workforce#tab=tab_1
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