Government to pay its own doctors fly-in rates of thousands a day to plug maternity unit gaps

Queensland Health has offered to pay their own doctors and medical staff thousands of extra dollars a day to work short stints at buckling regional maternity units.

Queensland Health has offered to pay their own doctors and medical staff thousands of extra dollars a day to work short stints at under pressure regional maternity units in a bid to plug a dire shortage.

The extraordinary move comes as Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said Queensland was in a “bidding war” with other states and also countries to lure in much needed midwives and clinicians including obstetricians and gynaecologists.

A severe shortage of workers has led to Gladstone Hospital’s maternity unit being put on bypass for more than 270 days, with a full resumption of services to stop mothers having to travel hundreds of kilometres for help to be in place by June at the earliest.

And a letter from a top Queensland Health executive, dated March 30, has revealed the department has gone so far as to offer its own staff “locum equivalent rates” to head into the regions for short term deployments amid moves to “explore all available options”.

Queensland Health Minister Yvette D'Ath says Queensland is in a “bidding war” with other states and countries. Picture: Dan Peled / NCA NewsWire

Queensland Health chief operating officer Dr David Rosengren, in the letter, also revealed a new short-term “medical maternity working group” has also been set up in a bid to tackle the shortage of specialist obstetricians and gynaecologists and GPs with skills in the space.

Dr Rosengren said the “immediate priority is to return full maternity services to Central Queensland Health Service across both Rockhampton and Gladstone Hospitals”.

Locums, or fly-in temporary doctors, are used throughout the country to fill vacancies in hospitals and are usually paid thousands of dollars a day.

Queensland Health Chief Operating Officer Dr David Rosengren. Picture: NewsWire / Sarah Marshall

Job advertisements seen by the Courier-Mail show locum gigs in regional Queensland are offered at $2500 to $3000 a day, with the pay packet for an immediate role available at Gladstone Hospital maternity unit left “open to negotiation”.

In other states locums are offered rates or $3000 to $3500 a day, travel and accommodation provided.

The National Association of Specialist Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, in a recent submission to the government outlining ways to fix the staffing issues, warned the lack of commercially competitive wages was a genuine issue in the state.

The group has advised government to adopt the mining sector strategy of paying people two to five times more to work in the regions than in the city.

Ms D’Ath on Wednesday said Queensland was in a bidding war to attract clinicians, with the department interviewing overseas doctors for roles and finding ways to make regions attractive to couples and families.

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli said the government needed to “stop the ducking and weaving and start being honest about the true extent of the Queensland Maternity Crisis”.

Originally published as Government to pay its own doctors fly-in rates of thousands a day to plug maternity unit gaps