Media Release
31 October 2007
Coalition plans for medical workforce lacks strategy
The Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) today welcomed the Coalition’s election pledge to extend funding to employ a practice nurse in all GP clinics, but said it lacks a strategic workforce plan.
“The ANF welcomes any initiative that supports GPs and practice nurses. However where will Mr Howard find the nurses to work in GP surgeries?” said ANF Assistant Federal Secretary Ged Kearney.
Ms Kearney said the plan to train enrolled nursing students in 25 hospital based training schools will not deliver a single undergraduate nurse into the system.
“The hospital based training strategy to deliver 500 enrolled nurses into the system is misleading and Mr Howard should stop claiming that it will relieve the shortage of registered nurses. If Mr Howard is serious about addressing nursing workforce issues he would listen to nurses and fund an extra 1,000 undergraduate nursing places.”
The proposal to fund 800,000 home visits by practice nurses to older Australians and Veterans is much needed but the plan lacks any detail on where the nurses are coming from, Ms Kearney said.
“There is no doubt we need to provide more home based care services to older Australian’s but the real problem remains that we do not have enough nurses working in the profession at the moment.
“One of the main problems we face is the large number of nurses who remain registered (*30,000) but refuse to work as nurses as a result of the rising pressures of the job in an overstretched health care system and the lack of decent wages and conditions on offer,” Ms Kearney said.
(*Source AIHW 2006 report).
Media inquiries:
Jill Iliffe, Federal Secretary 0419 576 590
Ged Kearney, ANF Assistant Federal Secretary 0417 053 322
The ANF, representing 150,000 members, is the professional and industrial voice for nurses and midwives in