Nursing workforce bidding war an extra tax for Victorian private health insurance holders

Monday, 29 August 2022

Nursing workforce bidding war undermines Federal Minister's call for
national health workforce strategy
The Victorian Government's plan to pay for nursing training in return for nurses working in Victorian public hospitals
is a poorly thought-out piece of electioneering that will lead to a shortage of nurses in aged care and private
hospitals, says Australian Private Hospitals Association (APHA) CEO Michael Roff.

Mr Roff said while the proposal would provide incentives for graduate nurses to work in public hospitals that will
inevitably mean less nurses for other care, including primary care, aged care and private hospitals.

"This move could force the closure of services in the private sector and that is not good news for the state's public
hospital system. Victoria's public hospitals are already groaning under the strain of COVID-19, influenza and massive
elective surgery backlogs. They are currently relying on the private sector to help them manage all of this. If the
private sector loses hospitals, the pressure on the public system only increases," Mr Roff said.

"The Victorian Premier's plan will also undermine the Federal Government's plan to attract more nurses into aged
care. If they are training only to go into public hospitals, there are no nurses for the Federally managed aged care
sector.

"All this does is start a bidding war between states and territories and across the health system for a workforce that
isn't there.

"We agree with Federal Health Minister Mark Butler that Australia need a national strategy to address the health
workforce shortage. If each state and territory follows Victoria's lead, we will have not have a national strategy but
eight different approaches competing with each other."
Mr Roff said private hospitals train a number of graduate nurses and many had significantly increased their graduate
intakes in an effort to increasing the nursing workforce. These nurses are not prohibited from working in the public
sector if they choose to, but it would now be very difficult to attract graduates into private hospitals
"We call on the Federal Minister to intervene to ensure we have a national program to address Australia's skilled
workforce issues. Taking a broad view of our health care system and its requirements is the best way to address
workforce shortage, not states one upping each other with offers that may not result in any huge boost to
workforce," Mr Roff said.

-ENDSMedia contact: Frith Rayner, Director Communications and Marketing, 0413 971 999

Level 3 /11 National Circ, Barton ACT 2600. PO Box 4502, Kingston ACT 2604. [T] 02 6273 9000 [F] 02 6273 7000
[E] [W] www.apha.org.au [FB] ValuingPrivateHospitals [Twitter] @priv8hospitals
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