❓ The Minister for Health outlines measures to ease pressure on the healthcare workforce due to COVID-19, including a recruitment drive for clinical and support staff, flexible working hours, and fly-in teams for regional areas.
AnsweredQoN 160Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
CORONAVIRUS — HEALTHCARE WORKFORCE
160. Ms A. SANDERSON to the Minister for Health:
I refer to the government's response to the impact of
COVID-19 on our health system and the government's commitment to
continuing to boost WA's preparedness for an expected increase in
cases. Can the minister outline to the house
what measures the government is putting in place to ease pressure on our
existing healthcare workforce?
160. Ms A. SANDERSON to the Minister for Health:
I refer to the government's response to the impact of
COVID-19 on our health system and the government's commitment to
continuing to boost WA's preparedness for an expected increase in
cases. Can the minister outline to the house
what measures the government is putting in place to ease pressure on our
existing healthcare workforce?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for the question; it is an important one.
I get a lot of suggestions around what buildings we could use to expand our
services, such as Princess Margaret Hospital for Children. We love the old
building. We have lots of happy memories there, but these buildings are old,
and it is a truism that the constraints on our health system are not going to
have the space available that we need for beds. It is going to be the health
workforce, because the health staff, as everyone knows, are the backbone of a strong
health system. It is the people standing next to those patients and the people
who are supporting those people. Cleaners, porters, kitchen staff, nurses,
doctors, laboratory teams, volunteers, social workers, pharmacists and security
staff all form part of an effective health
system, and it is inevitable that with the spread of the COVID-19 virus we will
have extra pressure on WA's healthcare system, particularly as
we move into the influenza season.
In preparation for this, the McGowan government has commenced
a recruitment drive to bolster WA's health workforce. Starting today,
advertisements will run in metropolitan and regional newspapers as well as
industry publications and online publications calling for clinical staff to
join our health system. This will be followed by a second wave of recruitment
to attract professionals, including allied health, patient support and critical
hospital administration roles. The jobs drive is part of a range of measures to
enhance WA's preparedness for the expected increase of the COVID-19
virus. As members will be aware, not only will healthcare workers become sick
and have to exclude themselves from the workplace, many will simply be excluded
through precautionary measures that we have in place. The good news is that
prospective staff will also be offered immediate starts and flexible working
hours. Staff being sought in the first recruitment wave include registered,
clinical and enrolled nurses, assistants in nursing, senior medical
practitioners, general practitioners, junior doctors, medical scientists and
technical assistants with clinical laboratory experience. The advertisements
are scheduled to run for several weeks and reveal the opportunities for
full-time, part-time, casual and sessional work with positions available across
the metropolitan area, but, also, very importantly, regional areas. We will be
assembling clinical teams who can fly into a regional setting where the
workforces, by their very nature, are much smaller in the regional sectors and
have less capacity to backfill in the context of absenteeism. Fly-in teams will
be able to come in and support those regional workforces so that we can
maintain the health campuses and health clinics in our regional communities.
We encourage everyone who does not already work in the WA
public health system, including retirees, to consider positions on offer, as we
work to minimise the impact of the COVID-19 virus on the WA community. Further
information can be found on the jobs.wa.gov.au website. This workforce will be
one of our crucial aspects of our response
in terms of COVID-19. If we have any clinical staff or support staff who are
out of the workforce currently , retirees or people who have stepped away
from clinical work in the short term but are looking for an opportunity to add
their support to our COVID-19 response, please heed the call. Take up arms
again, because over the next few months, we will have a significant amount of
work to do to maintain our healthcare workforce.
I get a lot of suggestions around what buildings we could use to expand our
services, such as Princess Margaret Hospital for Children. We love the old
building. We have lots of happy memories there, but these buildings are old,
and it is a truism that the constraints on our health system are not going to
have the space available that we need for beds. It is going to be the health
workforce, because the health staff, as everyone knows, are the backbone of a strong
health system. It is the people standing next to those patients and the people
who are supporting those people. Cleaners, porters, kitchen staff, nurses,
doctors, laboratory teams, volunteers, social workers, pharmacists and security
staff all form part of an effective health
system, and it is inevitable that with the spread of the COVID-19 virus we will
have extra pressure on WA's healthcare system, particularly as
we move into the influenza season.
In preparation for this, the McGowan government has commenced
a recruitment drive to bolster WA's health workforce. Starting today,
advertisements will run in metropolitan and regional newspapers as well as
industry publications and online publications calling for clinical staff to
join our health system. This will be followed by a second wave of recruitment
to attract professionals, including allied health, patient support and critical
hospital administration roles. The jobs drive is part of a range of measures to
enhance WA's preparedness for the expected increase of the COVID-19
virus. As members will be aware, not only will healthcare workers become sick
and have to exclude themselves from the workplace, many will simply be excluded
through precautionary measures that we have in place. The good news is that
prospective staff will also be offered immediate starts and flexible working
hours. Staff being sought in the first recruitment wave include registered,
clinical and enrolled nurses, assistants in nursing, senior medical
practitioners, general practitioners, junior doctors, medical scientists and
technical assistants with clinical laboratory experience. The advertisements
are scheduled to run for several weeks and reveal the opportunities for
full-time, part-time, casual and sessional work with positions available across
the metropolitan area, but, also, very importantly, regional areas. We will be
assembling clinical teams who can fly into a regional setting where the
workforces, by their very nature, are much smaller in the regional sectors and
have less capacity to backfill in the context of absenteeism. Fly-in teams will
be able to come in and support those regional workforces so that we can
maintain the health campuses and health clinics in our regional communities.
We encourage everyone who does not already work in the WA
public health system, including retirees, to consider positions on offer, as we
work to minimise the impact of the COVID-19 virus on the WA community. Further
information can be found on the jobs.wa.gov.au website. This workforce will be
one of our crucial aspects of our response
in terms of COVID-19. If we have any clinical staff or support staff who are
out of the workforce currently , retirees or people who have stepped away
from clinical work in the short term but are looking for an opportunity to add
their support to our COVID-19 response, please heed the call. Take up arms
again, because over the next few months, we will have a significant amount of
work to do to maintain our healthcare workforce.
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