Hospitals go overseas to find staff

Recruiters are looking for radiotherapists in South Africa and Britain to combat delays in cancer treatment, writes health reporter MARTIN JOHNSTON.

Public hospitals are sending officials on overseas recruiting drives in a bid to end staff shortages and reduce treatment waiting times for patients.

Many cancer patients are waiting well over the recommended four weeks for radiation therapy and some are being sent to Australia for the treatment.

Some Auckland Hospital patients are waiting eight to 10 weeks for radiotherapy.

The main reasons are that several cancer units are short of radiation therapists and that patient referrals for radiotherapy are growing by more than 5 per cent a year.

Auckland Hospital is trying to poach radiotherapists from South Africa and Britain. Two recruiters arrived in South Africa yesterday.

Margaret Burchett, a business manager for the hospital's haematology and oncology services, said Canada had been aggressive in its hunt for radiotherapists "and we are adopting a similar tactic."

She will go on the British trip.

The hospital employs about 40 radiotherapists. It hopes to recruit six more to run the radiotherapy machinery for an additional shift starting next year, and wants to lure 10 new staff from overseas so some can go to other cancer units.

Ms Burchett said New Zealand's selling point was its lifestyle. Hospitals here could not compete with the salaries offered in Canada and Britain.

Waitemata Health has sent senior officials to Britain to recruit mental health staff.

Auckland Healthcare, which runs Auckland Hospital, is also struggling with a severe shortage of nurses.

Last month it had to cover a record 4665 nursing shifts using bureau and agency staff and it has 216 vacancies for nurses.

One strategy that it and other health and hospital services are using is to employ more low-paid "healthcare assistants" - a move condemned as unsafe by the main nurses' union - and to shift some highly qualified nurses into areas traditionally dominated by doctors.

Auckland Healthcare chief executive Graeme Edmond, in a statement written for a health forum last night, said recruiting and retaining radiotherapists, nurses and other clinical staff was a critical issue.

"Market forces have not addressed the problem," he said. "We need a national integrated workforce development strategy and innovative alternatives to traditional clinical roles.

"It's about skills and training rather than roles, and it's about what patients want, not what suits us."

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