NURSES AND MIDWIVES — RECRUITMENT
670. Dr D.J. HONEY to the Minister for Health:
I refer to the minister's media
statement on 14 April announcing that he will be undertaking an international
recruitment campaign for nurses and midwives.
(1) Why has the
United Kingdom's advertising campaign only just commenced, as reported
on Seven news?
(2) If it takes
so long to get marketing creatives made, as the minister has asserted, why did
he not start work on this campaign when a life-threatening workforce shortage
was first identified?
Mr R.H.
COOK replied:
(1)–(2) I
want people to understand that the recruitment campaign was already underway.
That is why we have seen over 150 doctors
come from the United Kingdom and Ireland already. We have seen many more nurses
come from the UK and Ireland already. As a result of our budget, we allocated
$2 million to make sure that we could provide the right sort of campaign
necessary to boost those efforts and significantly increase the number of
doctors and nurses who are attracted to Western Australia.
The Leader of the Liberal Party
would not be familiar with budgetary processes. We saw the contempt that the
Liberal Party showed for the state's finances when it was in
government. I understand why there is an element of confusion when it comes to
issues such as costings, finances, budgetary approvals and making sure that
there is proper oversight of the process.
Mr M. McGowan: Adding up.
Mr R.H. COOK: And adding up,
as the Premier has just interjected. I understand that that is a level of
confusion and a dark grey area for the
Liberal Party. It has a bit of a knowledge gap. From that perspective, it does
not appreciate what goes on to make sure that we have these effective
policies.
The
reason we have proceeded carefully is that we are already in the field. We
wanted to make sure that the creatives were right and that they would
resonate with the people whom we are targeting. As I said in previous answers today, we have already seen just under 1 000
nurses, but over 1 000 nurses, assistants in nursing and midwives come to be part of our healthcare workforce. As I said,
over 150 doctors have come from Ireland and the UK since January this year. So, we are making good progress.
Obviously, the Belong campaign is an important part of that recruitment.
That will now significantly increase and ramp up. We will continue to recruit
as part of our $71.6 million healthcare workforce support package to make sure
that we can continue to provide world-class health care.