Outlook grim for Australia's health services - Critical Shortages means essential services will suffer, says employment experts

Sydney, 20^th October 2008 - Australia will face a significant decline in healthcare services unless the Federal Government urgently reviews current legislation on 457 visas, with high demand and minimal local supply of nurses and allied health professionals putting pressure on public services.

Debra Loveridge, Chief Executive Officer of specialist recruitment and HR services group Randstad, says that with jobs growth in the healthcare sector expected to rise to 3.6 per cent[1] in the latest quarter, the demand for overseas skilled workers will increase to meet the demand for healthcare professionals.

Unless the Federal Government acts now to ease the local skills shortage, she says, the outlook is dire.

“Current legislation allows unskilled workers to be in the country within 24 hours. Whilst applauding the government’s strategy to open up migration for readily available unskilled labour, registered nurses and allied health professionals face a lengthy process and they are the people we need urgently. Restraints on the recruitment industry to establish Labour Agreements are deterring employers who need to fill the gaps now – not months down the track,” says Ms Loveridge.

While supporting the intent of the Rudd Government to require businesses to participate in the education, training and upskilling of Australian workers, Ms Loveridge believes that placing restraints on recruitment companies to sign Labour Agreements and commit two percent of wages to training before they can sponsor overseas skilled workers, will do little to solve the immediate labour shortage of frontline services.

“Walk through any hospital or healthcare facility and you’ll see the effects of the skills shortage. There is no option but to open our doors to candidates from abroad in order to provide better health services.

“Whilst we live in a time of self help, self serve and ‘DIY’, medical care is absolutely not an area where we can help ourselves. We all rely on medical expertise - acute care can never be replaced,” says Ms Loveridge.

Megan Warrin, General Manager of the health & community care division of Randstad sees first-hand, on a daily basis, qualified and skilled professionals not being granted 457 visas to work in Australia, then turning to other countries more willing to readily accept their skills.

“We recently conducted highly successful international recruitment campaigns for registered nurses wanting to work in Australia. We had an overwhelming response but due to working visa restrictions and the fact that we now have to find sponsors for these workers, the process is taking a lot longer and in many instances we have had to place these nurses in Canada, New Zealand, Asia and the Middle East,” says Warrin.

“Previously we would have brought a large percentage of these nurses to Australia immediately on 457 visas if we could on-hire them, and this would have been a significant move to solve shortages, particularly in rural and remote areas.”

“Only last year we had in excess of 200 contract nurses in rural and remote outposts throughout the country, and this is now down to zero because it is too costly and too difficult for healthcare services organisations to sponsor them.”

Ms Loveridge adds that while she will continue to run a profitable business, as a member of the community, she believes we will all suffer if we cannot gain access to appropriate medical care due to restrictive visa legislation on skilled health professionals.

“Since the Government does not seem to be making immediate legislative changes to bring frontline health professionals into the country, we have decided to formulate our own Labour Agreement to bring in nurses and healthcare professionals into the country. There is a critical shortage, so we’re hoping that the Labour Agreement will help to ease this, to some extent.

“A greater focus on re-training unskilled workers would also be more beneficial to the economy than restricting access of skilled workers to fill gaps in the labour market. While economists predict that the economic uncertainty will result in a slowdown in employment, the demand for healthcare professionals will not ease as the population demands improved health services,” says Ms Loveridge.