Recruiting Doctors From the UK
Premier Peter Beattie will return to Britain this week to give a further boost to the successful doctor recruitment campaign he launched in September.
“Queensland Health needs to recruit foreign-trained professionals because the Federal Government has admitted it has not been training enough Australian doctors and that there is a massive shortage of trained nurses,” said Mr Beattie.
“I initiated a recruitment campaign in the United Kingdom in September last year with a series of advertisements and functions which attracted 649 expressions of interest from a wide variety of health professionals in Britain.
“Queensland Health has examined their credentials and carried out interviews and so far 34 doctors have either started work for us or are being appointed - and another 126 doctors are being considered for appointments.
“44 nurses, allied health workers and dentists have also either been appointed or are going through the same process.
“These professionals are joining hundreds of others who have joined Queensland Health.
“In the Health Action Plan which we announced in October we set initial targets of recruiting 300 doctors, 400 allied health workers and 500 nurses by December 2006.
“We have already employed a total of 236 extra doctors, 363 extra allied health professionals and 1,065 extra nurses - but we need more.
