It can be difficult to attract medical professionals to regional areas like Wagga, but that hasn’t stopped Joy Ross from recruiting some of the best.
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The “professional headhunter” works with the Riverina Medical Specialist Recruitment and Retention Committee, a group that works out what doctors are needed and then sends Ms Ross to bring them to Wagga.
“A lot of doctors tend to grow up, train and work in metropolitan areas,” Ms Ross said.
“It’s not that they don’t want to move, but I wonder if they even consider regional areas. We look at what our needs are and then I use a number of methods to market Wagga and identify potential doctors.”
There are more than 100 medical job vacancies across the Riverina, but rather than wait for people to find them, Wagga’s health industry is being proactive.
Ms Ross’ position is jointly funded by Calvary Hospital and Regional Imaging Riverina, Wagga Rural Referral Hospital, council and the two university medical schools are also involved in the decision-making process.
Committee chair Nick Stephenson, a radiologist and clinical director at Regional Imaging, said geographic diversity was very important.
“Joy is passionate about her job, some of the specialists recruited Joy has been chatting to for three years or more,” Dr Stephenson said.
“Wagga is now a regional capital for medical services with about 100 specialists and we’re starting to draw young doctors naturally because of that.”
Dr Pankaj Banga, Wagga Rural Referral Hospital’s director of medical services, said public-private partnership had been very successful, with more than 100 senior doctors staying in the area long-term. But there were also other tools at their disposal to find allied health workers and nurses beyond Ms Ross’ specialist focus.
“Traditionally we advertised through the NSW Health website and contract agencies but now we also advertise to specialist colleges on their websites and in their newsletters,” Dr Banga said.
“Recently we also started advertising on social media in a big manner, on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube where we have videos about the hospital and the stories of people who work here.
“In the past two years we’ve recruited many new specialists and junior doctors as well.”
Encouraging medical professionals to go bush could be challenging, according to Rural Doctors Network general manager Dave Karlson, who said there were about 36 GP vacancies in the Riverina.
“There’s a lot of activity in this area but the successful approach is to get different parties together and discuss what’s needed,” Mr Karlson said.
Stephen Mudd
Stephen Mudd is a journalist for Fairfax Media west of the great divide. He loves music, dogs and travel.
Stephen Mudd is a journalist for Fairfax Media west of the great divide. He loves music, dogs and travel.
