SPECIALISTS are already interested in moving to Tamworth for the new palliative care physician role, but the head-honchos of the health system concede it’s always difficult to attract medical staff.
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Tamworth continues to be a focus for the state government as it slowly dishes out spending and new staffing allocations, part of its $100 million windfall to improve palliative care.
A new training and scholarship program, worth $1.2 million, will be rolled-out to give nurses and allied health opportunities to “boost palliative care skills”, which local nursing bosses said will particularly benefit rural communities.
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The job has already got some bites, Hunter New England Health regional health director Susan Heyman said.
“We have had interest already from people, so I’ve got no doubt we’ll be able to fill that position,” she said.
“I’d hope to have it advertised early in January and recruited as soon afterwards as we can.”
But she conceded “always difficult to attract medical staff” into regional areas.
It’s not known how much of the nursing training fund will be poured into the Hunter New England district, and specifically Tamworth, but local nurses are confident it’ll be a big help.
“It’s a really great initiative and from a rural perspective,” Tamworth hospital nursing director Michelle Keir said.
“It’s great recruitment and retention tool for Tamworth, for rural nurses it allows us to provide local training where they can actually have a scholarship and under take the training locally.”
Nurse unit manager of the hospital’s Nioka palliative ward, Tracey Dawson, said there is an interest among nurses in taking up end-of-life care, but said it took a special person to take up the specialised roles.
“We are lucky enough to have the angels here that we do, and they are angels,” Ms Dawson said.
“When we do lose our loved ones, these guys are the people that the families remember, that help along that journey.”