Shortage of physios and O.T.s ‘acute’

Press, 14 January 1986, Page 4

Shortage of physios and O.T.s ‘acute’

PA Wellington Acute shortages of public hospital physiotherapists, occupational therapists and other rehabilitation staff are getting worse, forcing hospital boards to try to recruit overseas. A national survey of vacancies for physiotherapists in December showed a shortage of 23 per cent, said Wellington Hospital’s director of physiotherapy, Miss Dorothy Gordon, yesterday. That figure was well up on the previous survey in July, which showed a vacancy rate of 17 per cent. In October, “The Press” reported acute shortages of physiotherapists in Christchurch hospitals. A slight improvement has come since the employment of new. graduates who qualified in December. As well, some Christchurch vacancies have been filled by physiotherapists from overseas. The director of physiotherapy services for the Canterbury Hospital Board, Miss G. M. C. Draper, said last evening that Christchurch still had a shortage but it was not quite so acute as during October. Miss Gordon said graduates from New Zealand’s two diploma courses were coming into the workforce, but even after hiring new graduates, Wellington Hospital was still short by 14 physiotherapists, or 19 per cent of the staff. Similar figures apply to occupational therapists, with Wellington Hospital understaffed by 17 per cent As a result of vacancy surveys and consultation between the Health and Labour departments, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech therapists were all added to the ~ latest occupational

priority list for skilled worker immigration. Even with the more relaxed immigration rules, Miss Gordon said, there was still a four to five-month delay between someone in Britain being offered a job, and actually reaching the workforce in New Zealand. She said the intake at each of the Otago and Auckland physiotherapy schools had been raised from 42 to 54, but because it was a three-year course, 1989 would be the earliest to show any benefit.

“It will have little effect anyway, if the current drain-off continues,” she said. She blamed the lure of higher salaries in private practice or overseas, especially Australia, and the attraction of higher education, again particularly in Australia, for the shortages. “The hospital board is already advertising in Britain and also Australia and Canada, but we are unlikely to draw people from the last two because of the salaries.”