NURSES AND MIDWIVES — RECRUITMENT
671. Dr D.J. HONEY to the Minister for Health:
I
have a supplementary question. Can the minister confirm that there are doctors
and nurses who are fully vaccinated but are yet unable to enter WA from
within the rest of Australia?
Mr R.H.
COOK replied:
I hear rumours about this all the
time. Every time someone comes to me and says that there are doctors and nurses
who cannot get in, I ask who they are. If the member tells me who they are, we
will make sure that they get here.
Dr D.J. Honey: I'll
send you the details.
Mr R.H. COOK: Send me the
details, by all means, because the WA government is open for business.
Several members interjected.
Mr
R.H. COOK: The member will have to
ask Hon Nick Goiran for permission! Of course, he will say, ''They're
double vaccinated; we don't want them here.''
We are continuing to recruit from
the east coast, inside Western Australia and internationally. As I said, we
have 150 doctors from the UK and Ireland and
we are bringing nurses back as part of our Grampian nursing and midwifery
program. Those nurse graduates left Western Australia to get their practical
skills in the NHS Grampian when we had an oversupply. We now have an
undersupply, so we are bringing them back as well. About two dozen of them will
hopefully be joining us soon. Any doctors and nurses who want to come to Western
Australia, particularly from other states in Australia, can do so. Often we do
not have their full documentation, so the police cannot give them the
clearances they need. But, in working with the Chief Health Officer, I can
assure any doctor or nurse who is registered, particularly if they are double
vaccinated, and wants to come and work in Western Australia that we will move
heaven and earth to make sure that they can come in.