Australians say concern over health workforce shortages will affect the way they vote, according to a new survey \u2013 but neither of the major parties have proposed a solution to this problem, with less than a week to go before polling day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
APHA CEO Michael Roff said the Association\u2019s survey of just over 1000 Australians commissioned last week assessed the impact of health workforce shortages on voters, and the news for the major parties is not good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis survey shows ninety percent of Australians are concerned about the impact the shortage of nurses will have on the health and aged care systems, and 53 percent say this will affect the way they vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhile Australians understand a shortage of nurses will constrain efforts to clear the backlog of essential elective surgery or improve the quality of aged care, it is disappointing that neither major party seems to get it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWith all the major \u2018set-piece\u2019 announcements of the campaign now done, neither of the parties seeking to form government has put forward a plan to address this critical health workforce shortage,\u201d he said<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr Roff said while there had been announcements about \u2018more nurses\u2019, no one can explain how Australia will attract a skilled workforce and rebuild the local workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are calling on both parties to announce a plan to guarantee a pathway to permanent residency for skilled health care migrants coming to Australia, while we also build capacity at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is not just a matter of opening the borders and inviting people to come, we are competing for nurses, doctors and allied health professionals with the rest of the world. The United Kingdom, France and Canada have all made steps to make residency easier for migrant health professionals. Australia needs to step up or lose out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr Roff said an internal survey of APHA hospital members showed almost 60 percent anticipated falling short of their workforce needs in the first half of 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPrivate hospitals tell us they have a current shortfall of 5,500 nurses and they urgently need 1000 skilled migrants to fill some of this gap. But overseas nurses are reluctant to come to Australia as other countries are making it more attractive. As pressure to deliver delayed elective surgeries is at its height, Australia is struggling to fill its workforce needs. That could mean further delays for people who have already waited years for help and result in an even more exhausted workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn the short term, there\u2019s a solution. it\u2019s reducing the red-tape around bringing people into the country for employers and making Australia the most attractive option for those looking for a new place to call home,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Australians say concern over health workforce shortages will affect the way they vote, according to a new survey \u2013 but neither of the major parties have proposed a solution to this problem, with less than a week to go before polling day. APHA CEO Michael Roff said the Association\u2019s survey of just over 1000 Australians … Continue reading “Health workforce shortage will impact vote choices – survey\u00a0“<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16647"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16648,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16647\/revisions\/16648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}