Public hospitals plead for cash bonus to attract 65,000 new healthcare workers

Under-siege hospitals are pleading for a recruitment blitz and cash bonuses to help attract desperately needed healthcare workers.

A tent outside Box Hill Hospital for patient overflow as Victoria’s healthcare crisis worsens. Picture: David Crosling

Victoria’s public hospitals are pleading with the state government to urgently open its coffers to attract health workers to their besieged services.

In a desperate bid to attract 65,000 healthcare workers to prop up the overrun public health system over the next three years, the Victorian Healthcare Association will on Thursday urge the state government to begin a large-scale health recruitment campaign, similar to its Teach the Future campaign for the education sector.

Latest modelling reveals Victoria needs to bolster the public health workforce by about 22,000 workers a year for the next three years, despite the fact the state has only been able to recruit an average of just 3000 healthcare workers a year since the pandemic began.

Before next week’s national skills summit in Canberra, VHA deputy CEO Juan Paolo Legaspi said the sign-on bonuses of up to $50,000 offered to attract teachers were desperately needed to find and retain doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers.

“Finding ways to retain and recruit health workers should be the No.1 election issue in Victoria,” Mr Legaspi said.

“The latest hospital performance report shows we are experiencing unprecedented demand for care.

“On top of that, almost every public health service is struggling to manage workforce shortages.

“When hospitals don’t have enough staff available, they have to close beds – sometimes entire wards – and they have to delay procedures. This is distressing for both the health workers and the patients.”

The public hospital plea comes after the release of Victorian government’s Skills Plan on Monday, which confirmed Victoria’s healthcare worker shortage is so dire it needs 65,000 new workers to join the health and community care sector before 2025 to meet demand and replace retiring staff.

Most critically, this includes 6500 nurses as the number of workers leaving their jobs in need of a change has soared by 45 per cent above pre-Covid levels on top of ongoing illness absenteeism.