12 December 2006

NSW nurse recruitment

Minister for Health John Hatzistergos today welcomed the Auditor General’s overwhelming endorsement of the NSW Government’s work in attracting, retaining and managing nurses in NSW public hospitals.
Mr Hatzistergos said the report by the NSW Audit office found that:

• The department has done well to attract and retain nurses. In the last four years the public health sector gained 5,588 nurses
• The department has reduced the number of nurse resignations and recruited more nurses
• The department improved nurses wages to make them the highest paid in Australia
• The public health sector is working to better manage its nurses.

Mr Hatzistergos said that NSW Health strategies to attract and retain nurses have successfully increased the number of nurses working in public health, but there is still more work to do.
“The Iemma Government is undertaking the biggest ever nursing recruitment campaign and this year allocated $36.6 million for recruitment and retention strategies for nurses,” he said.
“Under the Iemma Labor Government we now have a record number of nurses, over 40,500 working in our public hospitals.
“In the past two years over 1,143 overseas qualified nurses and midwives have been recruited and nearly 1,500 nurses who left nursing have come back, through our successful Nursing Reconnect program.
“The Audit Report findings expose the Oppositions false claims that more nurses work in the private sector. The report states that a 76 per cent of nurses are choosing to work in the public system.
The Auditor General also revealed that despite a predicted shortfall of 40,000 nurses by 2010, the Commonwealth Government is failing to train home-grown nurses at university.
“The NSW Government is getting on with the job of recruiting more nurses while the Opposition won’t stand up to Canberra to demand more university places for nursing,” Mr Hatzistergos said.
“Unlike the Opposition who talk about finding just 500 extra nurses, the Iemma Government has recruited more than 5,500 nurses in the past four years.”
Mr Hatzistergos said the recommendations encourage NSW Health to continue its efforts in addressing the nursing shortfall in NSW.

For a range of health information, go online to www.health.nsw.gov.au