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Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt has revealed the government’s “one-off” plan to bolster hospitals as Australia battles its biggest outbreak yet.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt has revealed a plan to ship 2000 doctors and nurses to Australia as the nation battles with its ongoing Delta outbreak.
Mr Hunt said those who have already applied to come to Australia would be able to leapfrog travel restrictions and take up critical jobs throughout hospitals.
“This will be a one-off boost to provide additional support,” Mr Hunt told The Sydney Morning Herald. “The Commonwealth is committed to it and the states are working constructively with us on it.”
The influx of health professionals will predominantly come from Britain, Ireland and other countries with medical qualifications that are equivalent with regulators inside Australia, meaning they will be able to start work immediately after touching down.
The plan came after the International College of Nurses estimated a global shortage of up to 5.9 million nurses, with the UK’s Royal College of Nursing claiming there are more than 39,000 vacant nursing jobs in England alone.
Australian College of Nursing chief executive Kylie Ward revealed there were more than 12,000 vacant nursing positions in Australia, as the sector continues to mount pressure on politicians to bolster its pandemic recourses.
The Federal Government’s push for overseas nurses followed a push from health authorities to bring former healthcare professionals out of retirement for the pandemic.
The NSW Health clip shows senior health bureaucrats begging for tens of thousands of former doctors, nurses, psychologists and dentists to return to hospitals to help the health system cope with surging hospitalisations due to Covid cases in the state.
Australia’s medical watchdog has now doubled the number of practitioners on its pandemic sub-registers to more than 55,000 health professionals who have retired or stopped work.
The pressure is now so high that the Australian Medical Association (AMA) is calling on NSW to look at employing private sector workers who are without work due to the state’s ban on non-urgent surgery.
One of those who has dusted off his scrubs is Bruce Dowd, 63, who returned to nursing at a major Sydney hospital last month after retiring from a 38-year career in intensive care in 2018.
“I am still relatively young and my faculties are pretty good – I mean, I get a bit sore in the knees after going back to full-time – so I would have felt guilty not going in because I think I still have something to offer,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“I can do my own small bit to help out and try to give the expertise and knowledge I still have. The nurses working at the bedside are doing a fantastic job.”
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