PRESS RELEASE: Industry wide staff shortages still impacting healthcare sector

SYDNEY – More than three-quarters of hiring professionals are still reporting staff shortages in the latest Healthcare Workforce Survey from Talent Quarter.

In the Survey, undertaken during September, the number of public hospitals reporting staff shortages increased to 91 percent with just over 65 percent of hiring managers agreeing that the current market was challenging and that there are still not enough candidates available to fill vacancies, especially in the areas of occupational therapy and speech pathology.

‘Despite tighter controls, it’s concerning that so many facilities are still reporting staff shortages,’ said Sue Healy, Chief Executive Officer of Talent Quarter. ‘And it’s more concerning that almost one in five of those facilities are not planning to hire any new staff over the next three months to make up those shortfalls.’

More positively, one in four of the hiring professionals surveyed believe that patient confidence in our healthcare system has increased over the last six months and 26 percent agreed that staff confidence has also increased. Encouragingly, 36 percent of respondents also expect overall confidence in the healthcare system to continue to get better over the next 12 months.

‘It’s great to see that staff confidence in our healthcare system is expected to strengthen,’ continued Healy, ‘over 80 percent of survey respondents agreed that confidence would stay the same or improve over the next year.’

Copies of the survey are available via the Talent Quarter website at www.talentquarter.com