In a bid to promote regional NSW as the place to be for health professionals, the state government on Tuesday announced a scholarship program to attract new workers and upskill regional workforces.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Focusing on empowering regional workers, Ms Taylor said the scholarships could be tailored to target various needs including relocation costs, transport, textbooks and exam fees.
"These scholarships are flexible to individuals needs and are available across a range of health professions including allied health, nursing and midwifery and Aboriginal healthcare," she said.
![NSW Minister for Women, Minister for Regional Health and Minister for Mental Health Bronnie Taylor at Dubbo's Western Plains Cultural Centre on Tuesday. Picture by Jude Keogh. NSW Minister for Women, Minister for Regional Health and Minister for Mental Health Bronnie Taylor at Dubbo's Western Plains Cultural Centre on Tuesday. Picture by Jude Keogh.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/175630965/5f4a1412-9e99-4616-a7bd-7e0b87abbf61.JPG/r0_202_8256_5046_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
As part of 'Our Vision' for regional NSW, Ms Taylor said about 50 to 100 people would benefit from the scholarships available in each health category.
"What we'll do is we'll look at what the uptake is of those and we can also rejig that if we need to," she said.
Ms Taylor said the scholarship program was "different" as it would provide a concierge service for people to be able to discuss their requirements and areas of interest in healthcare.
We're opening up those scholarships to make them suit the person and not just the program.
- Bronnie Taylor
"If you want to go and do your next degree, in terms of nursing, we're [asking] you 'what do you need to do that? Is it the course fee? Is it HECS support? Is it transport? Is it accommodation?," she said.
"We're opening up those scholarships to make them suit the person and not just the program."
In terms of the previously announced $883 million package, workers would be required to commit to staying in regional areas for two years. When asked how the new scholarship initiative would successfully retain health workers in the long term, Ms Taylor mentioned a potential screening process.
"We haven't tied that completely, but there will be an interview process. There will be a process through the concierge that really ascertains whether you're serious about the country or not," she said.
"I would hope that people would be very genuine in that.
"In terms of is there any absolute solid 'you have to stay'... no, because we know that doesn't work, we've seen it fail in other areas so we don't want to repeat the same process."
Only time will tell whether the move will be sufficient to address the parliamentary inquiry into health in rural, regional, and remote areas' finding of a 'historic failure' to attract and retain health workers.
However, setting aside millions assigned to recruitment and upskilling packages, the question remains whether systemic issues were being addressed in the government's healthcare plan. Is the $5 million plus $883 million going to properly address problems regional workers are facing on the ground?
In September, nurses and midwives slammed the government's reluctance to implement evidence-based workplace solutions such as safe nursing and midwifery staffing ratios.
So far, these issues have not been addressed in the government's official response to the parliamentary health inquiry.
In an urgent case, where Nyngan hospital has seen shortage of patient beds, Ms Taylor said she was aware of the "workforce issue" at the moment and said it was not only a problem in NSW but all over the country.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark: centralwesterndailycom
- Download our app
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Google News