Incentive payments go down a treat in Queensland

More than 1300 international and interstate healthcare workers have moved to the Sunshine State in the first year of the Workforce Attraction Incentive Scheme.

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One year since introducing new cash incentives for doctors, nurses and allied health, Queensland is now 1320 healthcare workers richer.

Under the scheme, which was introduced in July 2023 and is set to run until the end of 2026, health workers from interstate or overseas who relocate to Queensland can earn up to $20,000.

The second prong of the program is open to international, interstate and intrastate health workers willing to relocate to a rural or regional area and nets the successful candidate up to $70,000.

This seems to have been the more popular arm, with the state government reporting that 70% of the 1320 staff members employed under the scheme work in non-metro regions.

“We make no excuse for trying to poach world-class health workers to work across our sunshine state,” Health Minister Shannon Fentiman said.

“Despite a global workforce shortage, our campaigns to attract more health heroes are working, which is why we’re seeing skilled workers making the move to Queensland.”

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Most of the 1320 health workers taking part in the program were either doctors, at 240, or nurses, at 800, but it’s also open to midwives, allied health, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island healthcare workers, dentists, other oral health practitioners and scientific officers.

To date, the incentive scheme has had a 95% retention rate.

Townsville hospital and health service (HHS) was the biggest winner, receiving 159 new staff members.

It’s followed by Cairns and Hinterland HHS at 134 and Darling Downs HHS at 131.

On the other end of the spectrum, the state department of health received just 36 staff under the program while both Central West HHS and the Children’s Health Service received 37 apiece.

Metro North HHS, which is the biggest health system in the state, received 90 of the new recruits.

The incentive recipients primarily came from interstate or relocated from within Queensland; just 123 candidates were offered roles as part of the international recruitment campaign, although 7000 expressed interest in the program.

The international campaign was primarily targeted at doctors, nurses allied health workers in the UK, New Zealand and Canada.