Page 1665 - Week 05 - Thursday, 7 April 2005

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .


Hospitals—overseas locum recruitment
(Question No 317)

Mr Smyth asked the Minister for Health, upon notice, on 16 March 2005:

(1) Is the Government still trying to recruit locums and doctors from overseas for The Canberra Hospital and Calvary Hospital; if not, why not;

(2) How many (a) locums and (b) doctors were recruited from overseas to work at (i) The Canberra Hospital and (ii) Calvary Hospital in (A) 2004 and (B) 2005;

(3) For the overseas (a) locums and (b) doctors recruited in 2004 and 2005 to date, what was the total cost of recruitment;

(4) What countries did the overseas (a) locums and (b) doctors come from;

(5) Have any of the qualifications of (a) locums and (b) doctors recruited from overseas in this Government recruitment campaign ever been questioned as being false or not entirely accurate; if so, on how many occasions and what action has been taken.

Mr Corbell: The answer to the member’s question is as follows:

(1) Both Calvary and The Canberra Hospital have been actively recruiting from overseas in the past and have been successful however at present we are not actively recruiting overseas. The ‘Make a difference – Join ACT Health’ DVD is distributed to Australian Consulates and Embassies overseas by ACT Health in which Calvary Health Care ACT and The Canberra Hospital is represented.

Overseas recruitment is conducted on a case by case basis for hard to recruit areas after positions have been exhaustively advertised within Australia without success.

(2)

(i) Calvary Hospital

(a) Locums

(A) 2004 - Nil used from overseas.

(B) 2005 – One locum used for a period of 2 weeks during January 2005.

(b) Doctors recruited

(A) 2004 – One Intensive Care Registrar recruited for a period of 12 months commencing July 2003.

(B) 2005 – Nil recruitment to date.

(ii) The Canberra Hospital

Junior Doctors

At present there are approximately 30 junior doctors from overseas working at The Canberra Hospital. All junior doctors are on temporary employment contracts and as such we do not distinguish between locums and doctors.

Senior Doctors


Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .