Australia desperate for foreign healthcare workers

Health Workforce Australia has released a new report in which it claims the country needs to encourage more doctors and nurses to enter the country from abroad to fill a shortfall. The study reveals that in 2009 around a quarter of the doctors working in Australia had acquired their medical training overseas.

The report claims that over the next decade-and-a-half Australia will need to find 100,000 extra nurses and is also falling short of its requirements for radiologists, obstetricians, psychiatrists and GPs.

The shortage of qualified health workers is being felt most in the more remote parts of the country including the Northern territory, Western Australia and Queensland, according to the study. In an attempt to encourage people to move to remote locations the government is offering higher salaries,

According to Health Workforce Australia, the country does not have the resources to train the medical staff needed to fulfil the demand and therefore it is essential that doctors and nurses are recruited from other countries.

The body is calling for increased marketing and a simplification of the visa process so more people are attracted to working within the Australian healthcare system. At the moment there are various ways through which foreign doctors can enter the country to work that the Australian Medical Council oversees.