❓ Question on Notice regarding budget funding for child and community health care services in WA. The Minister acknowledges shortages and outlines potential solutions, including retraining programs and collaboration with universities to train Aboriginal health workers.
AnsweredQoN 568Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
CHILD AND COMMUNITY HEALTH CARE SERVICES — BUDGET FUNDING
Some notice of this question has been given. I refer to the provision of front-line child and community health care services. In the 2009-10 budget — (a) how many additional school health nurses, child health nurses, child development services staff and Aboriginal health nurses have been provided for; and (b) how many Aboriginal health nurses are currently working in Western Australia, and how many additional Aboriginal health workers will be employed? Dr K.D. HAMES
Some notice of this question has been given. I refer to the provision of front-line child and community health care services. In the 2009-10 budget — (a) how many additional school health nurses, child health nurses, child development services staff and Aboriginal health nurses have been provided for; and (b) how many Aboriginal health nurses are currently working in Western Australia, and how many additional Aboriginal health workers will be employed? Dr K.D. HAMES
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for the question and some notice of it. As the member is aware, this has been the subject of an inquiry by a committee of this house. The report of that inquiry has been presented to this house, and I think the Minister for Education and I are listed as having to respond to that inquiry, and that we have until 24 August to do so. However, I am happy to provide some preliminary information to the house. In terms of how many nurses have been provided for in the 2009-10 budget, there is not a specific figure, for two reasons. The first reason is that we have committed—as did the previous government—to an additional 800 nurses over the next four years. The specific locations to which those nurses will be sent has yet to be determined. I have to say, though, that I agree with the member, and with the comments in the committee report, that there are significant shortages across the system. I will highlight some of those shortages. I think these figures are actually in the report. For skilled nurses we are 135 full-time equivalents short; for child health nurses we are 105 FTEs short; and for Aboriginal health workers we are about 23 FTEs short. That is about 24 per cent of the total number of positions vacant. It is a concern, and certainly one that we as a government intend to address. A couple of nights ago I went to a send-off that we held for Hon Barbara Scott, a former member of this Parliament. For many years, Hon Barbara Scott has championed the cause of people who require speech therapy and occupational therapy. A major feature of her time as a member of Parliament was her attempt to address the lack of those services in the community. I am not sure how we will do that. We are looking at that as part of the response to the committee report. I will highlight a couple of the options. Some nurses who have been out of the nursing profession for a while, particularly those who went to work in the mining industry but are no longer involved in it, want to come back and do nursing. The process to do that is quite complex and difficult. Often people from country areas have to leave their families and even their jobs to come to Perth to get proper retraining. Many of those people would be extremely suited to working as school nurses, for example. The other day I spoke to the member for Pilbara about issues in Paraburdoo, Newman and Tom Price. We will look at how we can address those issues. Perhaps we will employ, as school health nurses or child health nurses, former nurses who do not want to undertake the full retraining requirements that are necessary to get back into nursing. That is one option we are looking at. I have said that we will employ as many Aboriginal health workers as we can get. The difficulty is training them. I am happy to provide to the member the quite extensive briefing note that I have about the additional effort that is required to train Aboriginal health workers. I was talking to representatives of the University of Notre Dame recently and they said they were looking at starting a program to train Aboriginal health workers. I said that it would be good if they could talk to “Twiggy” Forrest about the federal government program he is involved in to provide training for guaranteed jobs. I told the university representatives that if they could train the workers, the Department of Health would employ every Aboriginal health worker. If the university starts the program and works with the commonwealth government to get the training done, I will guarantee that the government will employ them. We will do everything we can. This is a serious issue but we will respond to it in more depth when we respond to the committee report.
(a) how many additional school health nurses, child health nurses, child development services staff and Aboriginal health nurses have been provided for; and (b) how many Aboriginal health nurses are currently working in Western Australia, and how many additional Aboriginal health workers will be employed? Dr K.D. HAMES replied: I thank the member for the question and some notice of it. As the member is aware, this has been the subject of an inquiry by a committee of this house. The report of that inquiry has been presented to this house, and I think the Minister for Education and I are listed as having to respond to that inquiry, and that we have until 24 August to do so. However, I am happy to provide some preliminary information to the house. In terms of how many nurses have been provided for in the 2009-10 budget, there is not a specific figure, for two reasons. The first reason is that we have committed—as did the previous government—to an additional 800 nurses over the next four years. The specific locations to which those nurses will be sent has yet to be determined. I have to say, though, that I agree with the member, and with the comments in the committee report, that there are significant shortages across the system. I will highlight some of those shortages. I think these figures are actually in the report. For skilled nurses we are 135 full-time equivalents short; for child health nurses we are 105 FTEs short; and for Aboriginal health workers we are about 23 FTEs short. That is about 24 per cent of the total number of positions vacant. It is a concern, and certainly one that we as a government intend to address. A couple of nights ago I went to a send-off that we held for Hon Barbara Scott, a former member of this Parliament. For many years, Hon Barbara Scott has championed the cause of people who require speech therapy and occupational therapy. A major feature of her time as a member of Parliament was her attempt to address the lack of those services in the community. I am not sure how we will do that. We are looking at that as part of the response to the committee report. I will highlight a couple of the options. Some nurses who have been out of the nursing profession for a while, particularly those who went to work in the mining industry but are no longer involved in it, want to come back and do nursing. The process to do that is quite complex and difficult. Often people from country areas have to leave their families and even their jobs to come to Perth to get proper retraining. Many of those people would be extremely suited to working as school nurses, for example. The other day I spoke to the member for Pilbara about issues in Paraburdoo, Newman and Tom Price. We will look at how we can address those issues. Perhaps we will employ, as school health nurses or child health nurses, former nurses who do not want to undertake the full retraining requirements that are necessary to get back into nursing. That is one option we are looking at. I have said that we will employ as many Aboriginal health workers as we can get. The difficulty is training them. I am happy to provide to the member the quite extensive briefing note that I have about the additional effort that is required to train Aboriginal health workers. I was talking to representatives of the University of Notre Dame recently and they said they were looking at starting a program to train Aboriginal health workers. I said that it would be good if they could talk to “Twiggy” Forrest about the federal government program he is involved in to provide training for guaranteed jobs. I told the university representatives that if they could train the workers, the Department of Health would employ every Aboriginal health worker. If the university starts the program and works with the commonwealth government to get the training done, I will guarantee that the government will employ them. We will do everything we can. This is a serious issue but we will respond to it in more depth when we respond to the committee report.
(b) how many Aboriginal health nurses are currently working in Western Australia, and how many additional Aboriginal health workers will be employed? Dr K.D. HAMES replied: I thank the member for the question and some notice of it. As the member is aware, this has been the subject of an inquiry by a committee of this house. The report of that inquiry has been presented to this house, and I think the Minister for Education and I are listed as having to respond to that inquiry, and that we have until 24 August to do so. However, I am happy to provide some preliminary information to the house. In terms of how many nurses have been provided for in the 2009-10 budget, there is not a specific figure, for two reasons. The first reason is that we have committed—as did the previous government—to an additional 800 nurses over the next four years. The specific locations to which those nurses will be sent has yet to be determined. I have to say, though, that I agree with the member, and with the comments in the committee report, that there are significant shortages across the system. I will highlight some of those shortages. I think these figures are actually in the report. For skilled nurses we are 135 full-time equivalents short; for child health nurses we are 105 FTEs short; and for Aboriginal health workers we are about 23 FTEs short. That is about 24 per cent of the total number of positions vacant. It is a concern, and certainly one that we as a government intend to address. A couple of nights ago I went to a send-off that we held for Hon Barbara Scott, a former member of this Parliament. For many years, Hon Barbara Scott has championed the cause of people who require speech therapy and occupational therapy. A major feature of her time as a member of Parliament was her attempt to address the lack of those services in the community. I am not sure how we will do that. We are looking at that as part of the response to the committee report. I will highlight a couple of the options. Some nurses who have been out of the nursing profession for a while, particularly those who went to work in the mining industry but are no longer involved in it, want to come back and do nursing. The process to do that is quite complex and difficult. Often people from country areas have to leave their families and even their jobs to come to Perth to get proper retraining. Many of those people would be extremely suited to working as school nurses, for example. The other day I spoke to the member for Pilbara about issues in Paraburdoo, Newman and Tom Price. We will look at how we can address those issues. Perhaps we will employ, as school health nurses or child health nurses, former nurses who do not want to undertake the full retraining requirements that are necessary to get back into nursing. That is one option we are looking at. I have said that we will employ as many Aboriginal health workers as we can get. The difficulty is training them. I am happy to provide to the member the quite extensive briefing note that I have about the additional effort that is required to train Aboriginal health workers. I was talking to representatives of the University of Notre Dame recently and they said they were looking at starting a program to train Aboriginal health workers. I said that it would be good if they could talk to “Twiggy” Forrest about the federal government program he is involved in to provide training for guaranteed jobs. I told the university representatives that if they could train the workers, the Department of Health would employ every Aboriginal health worker. If the university starts the program and works with the commonwealth government to get the training done, I will guarantee that the government will employ them. We will do everything we can. This is a serious issue but we will respond to it in more depth when we respond to the committee report.
Dr K.D. HAMES replied: I thank the member for the question and some notice of it. As the member is aware, this has been the subject of an inquiry by a committee of this house. The report of that inquiry has been presented to this house, and I think the Minister for Education and I are listed as having to respond to that inquiry, and that we have until 24 August to do so. However, I am happy to provide some preliminary information to the house. In terms of how many nurses have been provided for in the 2009-10 budget, there is not a specific figure, for two reasons. The first reason is that we have committed—as did the previous government—to an additional 800 nurses over the next four years. The specific locations to which those nurses will be sent has yet to be determined. I have to say, though, that I agree with the member, and with the comments in the committee report, that there are significant shortages across the system. I will highlight some of those shortages. I think these figures are actually in the report. For skilled nurses we are 135 full-time equivalents short; for child health nurses we are 105 FTEs short; and for Aboriginal health workers we are about 23 FTEs short. That is about 24 per cent of the total number of positions vacant. It is a concern, and certainly one that we as a government intend to address. A couple of nights ago I went to a send-off that we held for Hon Barbara Scott, a former member of this Parliament. For many years, Hon Barbara Scott has championed the cause of people who require speech therapy and occupational therapy. A major feature of her time as a member of Parliament was her attempt to address the lack of those services in the community. I am not sure how we will do that. We are looking at that as part of the response to the committee report. I will highlight a couple of the options. Some nurses who have been out of the nursing profession for a while, particularly those who went to work in the mining industry but are no longer involved in it, want to come back and do nursing. The process to do that is quite complex and difficult. Often people from country areas have to leave their families and even their jobs to come to Perth to get proper retraining. Many of those people would be extremely suited to working as school nurses, for example. The other day I spoke to the member for Pilbara about issues in Paraburdoo, Newman and Tom Price. We will look at how we can address those issues. Perhaps we will employ, as school health nurses or child health nurses, former nurses who do not want to undertake the full retraining requirements that are necessary to get back into nursing. That is one option we are looking at. I have said that we will employ as many Aboriginal health workers as we can get. The difficulty is training them. I am happy to provide to the member the quite extensive briefing note that I have about the additional effort that is required to train Aboriginal health workers. I was talking to representatives of the University of Notre Dame recently and they said they were looking at starting a program to train Aboriginal health workers. I said that it would be good if they could talk to “Twiggy” Forrest about the federal government program he is involved in to provide training for guaranteed jobs. I told the university representatives that if they could train the workers, the Department of Health would employ every Aboriginal health worker. If the university starts the program and works with the commonwealth government to get the training done, I will guarantee that the government will employ them. We will do everything we can. This is a serious issue but we will respond to it in more depth when we respond to the committee report.
I thank the member for the question and some notice of it. As the member is aware, this has been the subject of an inquiry by a committee of this house. The report of that inquiry has been presented to this house, and I think the Minister for Education and I are listed as having to respond to that inquiry, and that we have until 24 August to do so. However, I am happy to provide some preliminary information to the house. In terms of how many nurses have been provided for in the 2009-10 budget, there is not a specific figure, for two reasons. The first reason is that we have committed—as did the previous government—to an additional 800 nurses over the next four years. The specific locations to which those nurses will be sent has yet to be determined. I have to say, though, that I agree with the member, and with the comments in the committee report, that there are significant shortages across the system. I will highlight some of those shortages. I think these figures are actually in the report. For skilled nurses we are 135 full-time equivalents short; for child health nurses we are 105 FTEs short; and for Aboriginal health workers we are about 23 FTEs short. That is about 24 per cent of the total number of positions vacant. It is a concern, and certainly one that we as a government intend to address. A couple of nights ago I went to a send-off that we held for Hon Barbara Scott, a former member of this Parliament. For many years, Hon Barbara Scott has championed the cause of people who require speech therapy and occupational therapy. A major feature of her time as a member of Parliament was her attempt to address the lack of those services in the community. I am not sure how we will do that. We are looking at that as part of the response to the committee report. I will highlight a couple of the options. Some nurses who have been out of the nursing profession for a while, particularly those who went to work in the mining industry but are no longer involved in it, want to come back and do nursing. The process to do that is quite complex and difficult. Often people from country areas have to leave their families and even their jobs to come to Perth to get proper retraining. Many of those people would be extremely suited to working as school nurses, for example. The other day I spoke to the member for Pilbara about issues in Paraburdoo, Newman and Tom Price. We will look at how we can address those issues. Perhaps we will employ, as school health nurses or child health nurses, former nurses who do not want to undertake the full retraining requirements that are necessary to get back into nursing. That is one option we are looking at. I have said that we will employ as many Aboriginal health workers as we can get. The difficulty is training them. I am happy to provide to the member the quite extensive briefing note that I have about the additional effort that is required to train Aboriginal health workers. I was talking to representatives of the University of Notre Dame recently and they said they were looking at starting a program to train Aboriginal health workers. I said that it would be good if they could talk to “Twiggy” Forrest about the federal government program he is involved in to provide training for guaranteed jobs. I told the university representatives that if they could train the workers, the Department of Health would employ every Aboriginal health worker. If the university starts the program and works with the commonwealth government to get the training done, I will guarantee that the government will employ them. We will do everything we can. This is a serious issue but we will respond to it in more depth when we respond to the committee report.
In terms of how many nurses have been provided for in the 2009-10 budget, there is not a specific figure, for two reasons. The first reason is that we have committed—as did the previous government—to an additional 800 nurses over the next four years. The specific locations to which those nurses will be sent has yet to be determined. I have to say, though, that I agree with the member, and with the comments in the committee report, that there are significant shortages across the system. I will highlight some of those shortages. I think these figures are actually in the report. For skilled nurses we are 135 full-time equivalents short; for child health nurses we are 105 FTEs short; and for Aboriginal health workers we are about 23 FTEs short. That is about 24 per cent of the total number of positions vacant. It is a concern, and certainly one that we as a government intend to address. A couple of nights ago I went to a send-off that we held for Hon Barbara Scott, a former member of this Parliament. For many years, Hon Barbara Scott has championed the cause of people who require speech therapy and occupational therapy. A major feature of her time as a member of Parliament was her attempt to address the lack of those services in the community. I am not sure how we will do that. We are looking at that as part of the response to the committee report. I will highlight a couple of the options. Some nurses who have been out of the nursing profession for a while, particularly those who went to work in the mining industry but are no longer involved in it, want to come back and do nursing. The process to do that is quite complex and difficult. Often people from country areas have to leave their families and even their jobs to come to Perth to get proper retraining. Many of those people would be extremely suited to working as school nurses, for example. The other day I spoke to the member for Pilbara about issues in Paraburdoo, Newman and Tom Price. We will look at how we can address those issues. Perhaps we will employ, as school health nurses or child health nurses, former nurses who do not want to undertake the full retraining requirements that are necessary to get back into nursing. That is one option we are looking at. I have said that we will employ as many Aboriginal health workers as we can get. The difficulty is training them. I am happy to provide to the member the quite extensive briefing note that I have about the additional effort that is required to train Aboriginal health workers. I was talking to representatives of the University of Notre Dame recently and they said they were looking at starting a program to train Aboriginal health workers. I said that it would be good if they could talk to “Twiggy” Forrest about the federal government program he is involved in to provide training for guaranteed jobs. I told the university representatives that if they could train the workers, the Department of Health would employ every Aboriginal health worker. If the university starts the program and works with the commonwealth government to get the training done, I will guarantee that the government will employ them. We will do everything we can. This is a serious issue but we will respond to it in more depth when we respond to the committee report.
A couple of nights ago I went to a send-off that we held for Hon Barbara Scott, a former member of this Parliament. For many years, Hon Barbara Scott has championed the cause of people who require speech therapy and occupational therapy. A major feature of her time as a member of Parliament was her attempt to address the lack of those services in the community. I am not sure how we will do that. We are looking at that as part of the response to the committee report. I will highlight a couple of the options. Some nurses who have been out of the nursing profession for a while, particularly those who went to work in the mining industry but are no longer involved in it, want to come back and do nursing. The process to do that is quite complex and difficult. Often people from country areas have to leave their families and even their jobs to come to Perth to get proper retraining. Many of those people would be extremely suited to working as school nurses, for example. The other day I spoke to the member for Pilbara about issues in Paraburdoo, Newman and Tom Price. We will look at how we can address those issues. Perhaps we will employ, as school health nurses or child health nurses, former nurses who do not want to undertake the full retraining requirements that are necessary to get back into nursing. That is one option we are looking at. I have said that we will employ as many Aboriginal health workers as we can get. The difficulty is training them. I am happy to provide to the member the quite extensive briefing note that I have about the additional effort that is required to train Aboriginal health workers. I was talking to representatives of the University of Notre Dame recently and they said they were looking at starting a program to train Aboriginal health workers. I said that it would be good if they could talk to “Twiggy” Forrest about the federal government program he is involved in to provide training for guaranteed jobs. I told the university representatives that if they could train the workers, the Department of Health would employ every Aboriginal health worker. If the university starts the program and works with the commonwealth government to get the training done, I will guarantee that the government will employ them. We will do everything we can. This is a serious issue but we will respond to it in more depth when we respond to the committee report.
I will highlight a couple of the options. Some nurses who have been out of the nursing profession for a while, particularly those who went to work in the mining industry but are no longer involved in it, want to come back and do nursing. The process to do that is quite complex and difficult. Often people from country areas have to leave their families and even their jobs to come to Perth to get proper retraining. Many of those people would be extremely suited to working as school nurses, for example. The other day I spoke to the member for Pilbara about issues in Paraburdoo, Newman and Tom Price. We will look at how we can address those issues. Perhaps we will employ, as school health nurses or child health nurses, former nurses who do not want to undertake the full retraining requirements that are necessary to get back into nursing. That is one option we are looking at. I have said that we will employ as many Aboriginal health workers as we can get. The difficulty is training them. I am happy to provide to the member the quite extensive briefing note that I have about the additional effort that is required to train Aboriginal health workers. I was talking to representatives of the University of Notre Dame recently and they said they were looking at starting a program to train Aboriginal health workers. I said that it would be good if they could talk to “Twiggy” Forrest about the federal government program he is involved in to provide training for guaranteed jobs. I told the university representatives that if they could train the workers, the Department of Health would employ every Aboriginal health worker. If the university starts the program and works with the commonwealth government to get the training done, I will guarantee that the government will employ them. We will do everything we can. This is a serious issue but we will respond to it in more depth when we respond to the committee report.
I have said that we will employ as many Aboriginal health workers as we can get. The difficulty is training them. I am happy to provide to the member the quite extensive briefing note that I have about the additional effort that is required to train Aboriginal health workers. I was talking to representatives of the University of Notre Dame recently and they said they were looking at starting a program to train Aboriginal health workers. I said that it would be good if they could talk to “Twiggy” Forrest about the federal government program he is involved in to provide training for guaranteed jobs. I told the university representatives that if they could train the workers, the Department of Health would employ every Aboriginal health worker. If the university starts the program and works with the commonwealth government to get the training done, I will guarantee that the government will employ them. We will do everything we can. This is a serious issue but we will respond to it in more depth when we respond to the committee report.
(a) how many additional school health nurses, child health nurses, child development services staff and Aboriginal health nurses have been provided for; and (b) how many Aboriginal health nurses are currently working in Western Australia, and how many additional Aboriginal health workers will be employed? Dr K.D. HAMES replied: I thank the member for the question and some notice of it. As the member is aware, this has been the subject of an inquiry by a committee of this house. The report of that inquiry has been presented to this house, and I think the Minister for Education and I are listed as having to respond to that inquiry, and that we have until 24 August to do so. However, I am happy to provide some preliminary information to the house. In terms of how many nurses have been provided for in the 2009-10 budget, there is not a specific figure, for two reasons. The first reason is that we have committed—as did the previous government—to an additional 800 nurses over the next four years. The specific locations to which those nurses will be sent has yet to be determined. I have to say, though, that I agree with the member, and with the comments in the committee report, that there are significant shortages across the system. I will highlight some of those shortages. I think these figures are actually in the report. For skilled nurses we are 135 full-time equivalents short; for child health nurses we are 105 FTEs short; and for Aboriginal health workers we are about 23 FTEs short. That is about 24 per cent of the total number of positions vacant. It is a concern, and certainly one that we as a government intend to address. A couple of nights ago I went to a send-off that we held for Hon Barbara Scott, a former member of this Parliament. For many years, Hon Barbara Scott has championed the cause of people who require speech therapy and occupational therapy. A major feature of her time as a member of Parliament was her attempt to address the lack of those services in the community. I am not sure how we will do that. We are looking at that as part of the response to the committee report. I will highlight a couple of the options. Some nurses who have been out of the nursing profession for a while, particularly those who went to work in the mining industry but are no longer involved in it, want to come back and do nursing. The process to do that is quite complex and difficult. Often people from country areas have to leave their families and even their jobs to come to Perth to get proper retraining. Many of those people would be extremely suited to working as school nurses, for example. The other day I spoke to the member for Pilbara about issues in Paraburdoo, Newman and Tom Price. We will look at how we can address those issues. Perhaps we will employ, as school health nurses or child health nurses, former nurses who do not want to undertake the full retraining requirements that are necessary to get back into nursing. That is one option we are looking at. I have said that we will employ as many Aboriginal health workers as we can get. The difficulty is training them. I am happy to provide to the member the quite extensive briefing note that I have about the additional effort that is required to train Aboriginal health workers. I was talking to representatives of the University of Notre Dame recently and they said they were looking at starting a program to train Aboriginal health workers. I said that it would be good if they could talk to “Twiggy” Forrest about the federal government program he is involved in to provide training for guaranteed jobs. I told the university representatives that if they could train the workers, the Department of Health would employ every Aboriginal health worker. If the university starts the program and works with the commonwealth government to get the training done, I will guarantee that the government will employ them. We will do everything we can. This is a serious issue but we will respond to it in more depth when we respond to the committee report.
(b) how many Aboriginal health nurses are currently working in Western Australia, and how many additional Aboriginal health workers will be employed? Dr K.D. HAMES replied: I thank the member for the question and some notice of it. As the member is aware, this has been the subject of an inquiry by a committee of this house. The report of that inquiry has been presented to this house, and I think the Minister for Education and I are listed as having to respond to that inquiry, and that we have until 24 August to do so. However, I am happy to provide some preliminary information to the house. In terms of how many nurses have been provided for in the 2009-10 budget, there is not a specific figure, for two reasons. The first reason is that we have committed—as did the previous government—to an additional 800 nurses over the next four years. The specific locations to which those nurses will be sent has yet to be determined. I have to say, though, that I agree with the member, and with the comments in the committee report, that there are significant shortages across the system. I will highlight some of those shortages. I think these figures are actually in the report. For skilled nurses we are 135 full-time equivalents short; for child health nurses we are 105 FTEs short; and for Aboriginal health workers we are about 23 FTEs short. That is about 24 per cent of the total number of positions vacant. It is a concern, and certainly one that we as a government intend to address. A couple of nights ago I went to a send-off that we held for Hon Barbara Scott, a former member of this Parliament. For many years, Hon Barbara Scott has championed the cause of people who require speech therapy and occupational therapy. A major feature of her time as a member of Parliament was her attempt to address the lack of those services in the community. I am not sure how we will do that. We are looking at that as part of the response to the committee report. I will highlight a couple of the options. Some nurses who have been out of the nursing profession for a while, particularly those who went to work in the mining industry but are no longer involved in it, want to come back and do nursing. The process to do that is quite complex and difficult. Often people from country areas have to leave their families and even their jobs to come to Perth to get proper retraining. Many of those people would be extremely suited to working as school nurses, for example. The other day I spoke to the member for Pilbara about issues in Paraburdoo, Newman and Tom Price. We will look at how we can address those issues. Perhaps we will employ, as school health nurses or child health nurses, former nurses who do not want to undertake the full retraining requirements that are necessary to get back into nursing. That is one option we are looking at. I have said that we will employ as many Aboriginal health workers as we can get. The difficulty is training them. I am happy to provide to the member the quite extensive briefing note that I have about the additional effort that is required to train Aboriginal health workers. I was talking to representatives of the University of Notre Dame recently and they said they were looking at starting a program to train Aboriginal health workers. I said that it would be good if they could talk to “Twiggy” Forrest about the federal government program he is involved in to provide training for guaranteed jobs. I told the university representatives that if they could train the workers, the Department of Health would employ every Aboriginal health worker. If the university starts the program and works with the commonwealth government to get the training done, I will guarantee that the government will employ them. We will do everything we can. This is a serious issue but we will respond to it in more depth when we respond to the committee report.
Dr K.D. HAMES replied: I thank the member for the question and some notice of it. As the member is aware, this has been the subject of an inquiry by a committee of this house. The report of that inquiry has been presented to this house, and I think the Minister for Education and I are listed as having to respond to that inquiry, and that we have until 24 August to do so. However, I am happy to provide some preliminary information to the house. In terms of how many nurses have been provided for in the 2009-10 budget, there is not a specific figure, for two reasons. The first reason is that we have committed—as did the previous government—to an additional 800 nurses over the next four years. The specific locations to which those nurses will be sent has yet to be determined. I have to say, though, that I agree with the member, and with the comments in the committee report, that there are significant shortages across the system. I will highlight some of those shortages. I think these figures are actually in the report. For skilled nurses we are 135 full-time equivalents short; for child health nurses we are 105 FTEs short; and for Aboriginal health workers we are about 23 FTEs short. That is about 24 per cent of the total number of positions vacant. It is a concern, and certainly one that we as a government intend to address. A couple of nights ago I went to a send-off that we held for Hon Barbara Scott, a former member of this Parliament. For many years, Hon Barbara Scott has championed the cause of people who require speech therapy and occupational therapy. A major feature of her time as a member of Parliament was her attempt to address the lack of those services in the community. I am not sure how we will do that. We are looking at that as part of the response to the committee report. I will highlight a couple of the options. Some nurses who have been out of the nursing profession for a while, particularly those who went to work in the mining industry but are no longer involved in it, want to come back and do nursing. The process to do that is quite complex and difficult. Often people from country areas have to leave their families and even their jobs to come to Perth to get proper retraining. Many of those people would be extremely suited to working as school nurses, for example. The other day I spoke to the member for Pilbara about issues in Paraburdoo, Newman and Tom Price. We will look at how we can address those issues. Perhaps we will employ, as school health nurses or child health nurses, former nurses who do not want to undertake the full retraining requirements that are necessary to get back into nursing. That is one option we are looking at. I have said that we will employ as many Aboriginal health workers as we can get. The difficulty is training them. I am happy to provide to the member the quite extensive briefing note that I have about the additional effort that is required to train Aboriginal health workers. I was talking to representatives of the University of Notre Dame recently and they said they were looking at starting a program to train Aboriginal health workers. I said that it would be good if they could talk to “Twiggy” Forrest about the federal government program he is involved in to provide training for guaranteed jobs. I told the university representatives that if they could train the workers, the Department of Health would employ every Aboriginal health worker. If the university starts the program and works with the commonwealth government to get the training done, I will guarantee that the government will employ them. We will do everything we can. This is a serious issue but we will respond to it in more depth when we respond to the committee report.
I thank the member for the question and some notice of it. As the member is aware, this has been the subject of an inquiry by a committee of this house. The report of that inquiry has been presented to this house, and I think the Minister for Education and I are listed as having to respond to that inquiry, and that we have until 24 August to do so. However, I am happy to provide some preliminary information to the house. In terms of how many nurses have been provided for in the 2009-10 budget, there is not a specific figure, for two reasons. The first reason is that we have committed—as did the previous government—to an additional 800 nurses over the next four years. The specific locations to which those nurses will be sent has yet to be determined. I have to say, though, that I agree with the member, and with the comments in the committee report, that there are significant shortages across the system. I will highlight some of those shortages. I think these figures are actually in the report. For skilled nurses we are 135 full-time equivalents short; for child health nurses we are 105 FTEs short; and for Aboriginal health workers we are about 23 FTEs short. That is about 24 per cent of the total number of positions vacant. It is a concern, and certainly one that we as a government intend to address. A couple of nights ago I went to a send-off that we held for Hon Barbara Scott, a former member of this Parliament. For many years, Hon Barbara Scott has championed the cause of people who require speech therapy and occupational therapy. A major feature of her time as a member of Parliament was her attempt to address the lack of those services in the community. I am not sure how we will do that. We are looking at that as part of the response to the committee report. I will highlight a couple of the options. Some nurses who have been out of the nursing profession for a while, particularly those who went to work in the mining industry but are no longer involved in it, want to come back and do nursing. The process to do that is quite complex and difficult. Often people from country areas have to leave their families and even their jobs to come to Perth to get proper retraining. Many of those people would be extremely suited to working as school nurses, for example. The other day I spoke to the member for Pilbara about issues in Paraburdoo, Newman and Tom Price. We will look at how we can address those issues. Perhaps we will employ, as school health nurses or child health nurses, former nurses who do not want to undertake the full retraining requirements that are necessary to get back into nursing. That is one option we are looking at. I have said that we will employ as many Aboriginal health workers as we can get. The difficulty is training them. I am happy to provide to the member the quite extensive briefing note that I have about the additional effort that is required to train Aboriginal health workers. I was talking to representatives of the University of Notre Dame recently and they said they were looking at starting a program to train Aboriginal health workers. I said that it would be good if they could talk to “Twiggy” Forrest about the federal government program he is involved in to provide training for guaranteed jobs. I told the university representatives that if they could train the workers, the Department of Health would employ every Aboriginal health worker. If the university starts the program and works with the commonwealth government to get the training done, I will guarantee that the government will employ them. We will do everything we can. This is a serious issue but we will respond to it in more depth when we respond to the committee report.
In terms of how many nurses have been provided for in the 2009-10 budget, there is not a specific figure, for two reasons. The first reason is that we have committed—as did the previous government—to an additional 800 nurses over the next four years. The specific locations to which those nurses will be sent has yet to be determined. I have to say, though, that I agree with the member, and with the comments in the committee report, that there are significant shortages across the system. I will highlight some of those shortages. I think these figures are actually in the report. For skilled nurses we are 135 full-time equivalents short; for child health nurses we are 105 FTEs short; and for Aboriginal health workers we are about 23 FTEs short. That is about 24 per cent of the total number of positions vacant. It is a concern, and certainly one that we as a government intend to address. A couple of nights ago I went to a send-off that we held for Hon Barbara Scott, a former member of this Parliament. For many years, Hon Barbara Scott has championed the cause of people who require speech therapy and occupational therapy. A major feature of her time as a member of Parliament was her attempt to address the lack of those services in the community. I am not sure how we will do that. We are looking at that as part of the response to the committee report. I will highlight a couple of the options. Some nurses who have been out of the nursing profession for a while, particularly those who went to work in the mining industry but are no longer involved in it, want to come back and do nursing. The process to do that is quite complex and difficult. Often people from country areas have to leave their families and even their jobs to come to Perth to get proper retraining. Many of those people would be extremely suited to working as school nurses, for example. The other day I spoke to the member for Pilbara about issues in Paraburdoo, Newman and Tom Price. We will look at how we can address those issues. Perhaps we will employ, as school health nurses or child health nurses, former nurses who do not want to undertake the full retraining requirements that are necessary to get back into nursing. That is one option we are looking at. I have said that we will employ as many Aboriginal health workers as we can get. The difficulty is training them. I am happy to provide to the member the quite extensive briefing note that I have about the additional effort that is required to train Aboriginal health workers. I was talking to representatives of the University of Notre Dame recently and they said they were looking at starting a program to train Aboriginal health workers. I said that it would be good if they could talk to “Twiggy” Forrest about the federal government program he is involved in to provide training for guaranteed jobs. I told the university representatives that if they could train the workers, the Department of Health would employ every Aboriginal health worker. If the university starts the program and works with the commonwealth government to get the training done, I will guarantee that the government will employ them. We will do everything we can. This is a serious issue but we will respond to it in more depth when we respond to the committee report.
A couple of nights ago I went to a send-off that we held for Hon Barbara Scott, a former member of this Parliament. For many years, Hon Barbara Scott has championed the cause of people who require speech therapy and occupational therapy. A major feature of her time as a member of Parliament was her attempt to address the lack of those services in the community. I am not sure how we will do that. We are looking at that as part of the response to the committee report. I will highlight a couple of the options. Some nurses who have been out of the nursing profession for a while, particularly those who went to work in the mining industry but are no longer involved in it, want to come back and do nursing. The process to do that is quite complex and difficult. Often people from country areas have to leave their families and even their jobs to come to Perth to get proper retraining. Many of those people would be extremely suited to working as school nurses, for example. The other day I spoke to the member for Pilbara about issues in Paraburdoo, Newman and Tom Price. We will look at how we can address those issues. Perhaps we will employ, as school health nurses or child health nurses, former nurses who do not want to undertake the full retraining requirements that are necessary to get back into nursing. That is one option we are looking at. I have said that we will employ as many Aboriginal health workers as we can get. The difficulty is training them. I am happy to provide to the member the quite extensive briefing note that I have about the additional effort that is required to train Aboriginal health workers. I was talking to representatives of the University of Notre Dame recently and they said they were looking at starting a program to train Aboriginal health workers. I said that it would be good if they could talk to “Twiggy” Forrest about the federal government program he is involved in to provide training for guaranteed jobs. I told the university representatives that if they could train the workers, the Department of Health would employ every Aboriginal health worker. If the university starts the program and works with the commonwealth government to get the training done, I will guarantee that the government will employ them. We will do everything we can. This is a serious issue but we will respond to it in more depth when we respond to the committee report.
I will highlight a couple of the options. Some nurses who have been out of the nursing profession for a while, particularly those who went to work in the mining industry but are no longer involved in it, want to come back and do nursing. The process to do that is quite complex and difficult. Often people from country areas have to leave their families and even their jobs to come to Perth to get proper retraining. Many of those people would be extremely suited to working as school nurses, for example. The other day I spoke to the member for Pilbara about issues in Paraburdoo, Newman and Tom Price. We will look at how we can address those issues. Perhaps we will employ, as school health nurses or child health nurses, former nurses who do not want to undertake the full retraining requirements that are necessary to get back into nursing. That is one option we are looking at. I have said that we will employ as many Aboriginal health workers as we can get. The difficulty is training them. I am happy to provide to the member the quite extensive briefing note that I have about the additional effort that is required to train Aboriginal health workers. I was talking to representatives of the University of Notre Dame recently and they said they were looking at starting a program to train Aboriginal health workers. I said that it would be good if they could talk to “Twiggy” Forrest about the federal government program he is involved in to provide training for guaranteed jobs. I told the university representatives that if they could train the workers, the Department of Health would employ every Aboriginal health worker. If the university starts the program and works with the commonwealth government to get the training done, I will guarantee that the government will employ them. We will do everything we can. This is a serious issue but we will respond to it in more depth when we respond to the committee report.
I have said that we will employ as many Aboriginal health workers as we can get. The difficulty is training them. I am happy to provide to the member the quite extensive briefing note that I have about the additional effort that is required to train Aboriginal health workers. I was talking to representatives of the University of Notre Dame recently and they said they were looking at starting a program to train Aboriginal health workers. I said that it would be good if they could talk to “Twiggy” Forrest about the federal government program he is involved in to provide training for guaranteed jobs. I told the university representatives that if they could train the workers, the Department of Health would employ every Aboriginal health worker. If the university starts the program and works with the commonwealth government to get the training done, I will guarantee that the government will employ them. We will do everything we can. This is a serious issue but we will respond to it in more depth when we respond to the committee report.
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