Overseas doctors and nurses take up Grampians Health jobs to help ease critical staff shortages

The combined storm of COVID, influenza and growth have hit Grampians Health hard, with staff shortages posing one of the biggest challenges.

Grampians Health has 77 current job vacancies, the bulk of which are in medical, nursing and clinical roles.

"We need overseas workers because there's an incredible shortage of healthcare workers," Grampians Health chief people officer Claire Woods said.

"We can't produce enough; we have a significant 'grow your own' program but it's just not enough and the best way we can increase our workforce to the size it needs to be is to do everything - to grow our own, have interstate and regional recruitment, have international recruitment, and keep all those streams running because one stream cannot meet all the needs."

With the Ballarat Base Hospital redevelopment due for completion in 2027, and the new Melton Hospital scheduled to open in 2029, the staffing pressure will only escalate.

"Melton will be looking to recruit staff and our needs will increase as the number of beds and the number of services we offer increase, so we need to both attract new people and make sure Grampians Health is a great place to work for those who are here as word-of-mouth is incredibly important in attracting new staff."

Part of the solution lies in attracting overseas health professionals such as Minju Sajith, Sajith Kattiparambil Gangadharan and Pam Salvador who are among 25 health workers building a new life in Ballarat after answering the call for international health professionals to move here.

Within months another 40 are expected to arrive and start work at Grampians Health, attracted to work in the Victorian health system through the state government's international recruitment blitz and more specifically to Ballarat thanks to incentives from Grampians Health.

Husband and wife Dr Sajith and Dr Kattiparambil and their two sons, aged 15 and 12, moved to Ballarat from India, via time working in the UK, last year while Ms Salvador only arrived from the Philippines in June.

Dr Sajith, a psychiatrist, and Dr Kattiparambil, a gastroenterology medical registrar, both work in specialties where there is a particular shortage in regional areas. What attracted them to Ballarat was the fact they could both work here.

"We were working in the UK when we saw the ad for a psychiatrist. We have many friends in Victoria and in Melbourne, so I applied, got through the interview and got the job but I didn't make an immediate decision," Dr Sajith said.

Talking further with Grampians Health management, they were able to offer a job to her husband and the family decided to make the move.

"We applied to many places in Australia but none of the hospitals gave us both a job in the one place. It was the first place we were considered as a team, so that's why we chose Ballarat," she said.

When working in the UK the couple had been separated with Dr Sajith in Aberdeen, Scotland, and Dr Kattiparambil at Kings College, London and it was a situation they were keen to avoid again.

"Our boys knew about Australia before we even thought about it so they were very excited to move here. We were kind of anxious how will they fit in, how will we fit in, but it has been fine."

Grampians Health have helped them and other new international arrivals with temporary accommodation until they can get a rental, and other support as they settle in.

The couple feel that working in regional areas allows them to contribute more to the community.

To have their qualifications recognised in Australia both have had to complete some further study so, with both their sons at school, the whole family is now hitting the books.

As a psychiatrist working on the youth team Dr Sajith is acutely aware of the need for mental health services not just in Ballarat but throughout the Grampians Health region including Horsham and Ararat.

"We are supporting other (mental health) teams in Horsham and Ararat which has come as a welcome change ... I get to see youth from all these areas and the needs are all so different," she said.

Despite only having a small gastroenterology service at Grampians Health Ballarat, Dr Kattiparambil says he has seen quite a lot of "rare patients" that are challenging but able to be managed regionally rather than patients having to travel to metropolitan hospitals.

"We have been working such a long time and Ballarat has given us a place to work toward new goals, because the challenges are different in various places," Dr Sajith said.

Ms Salvador, who has 10 years' experience as a nurse in Manila, started work in Ballarat on June 1 and is now in the COVID ward, but has worked in paediatrics, ICU and emergency.

Three weeks ago her husband also joined her in Ballarat and this week he too started work at Grampians Health - Ballarat in a casual role while he completes studies needed to have his nursing qualification recognised in Australia.

The support she has received has helped her settle in quickly.

"They gave me a two-week paid orientation program where they showed me a glimpse of how nurses work in acute and sub acute facilities. Coming from overseas our systems there and processes in nursing are different from what they do in Ballarat ... so the support I've been receiving is very nice," she said.

Ms Salvador applied for many jobs in Australia but the offer from Grampians Health was "the most accommodating and supportive", even including having someone pick her up from the airport when she arrived, temporary accommodation and helping her with the basics when she rented an unfurnished home.

She completed some of her nursing studies as an international student in Queensland and some of her classmates who are working in their home countries are now envious of her now job, the relocations incentives she has been offered and the perks of living in Ballarat and Victoria.

"This is a new experience for me going regional. Although it's a regional place it's very multicultural and (my husband and I) have tried several different cuisines and we are enjoying eating out," Ms Salvador said.

"I was surprised when I arrived in Ballarat because I remember before coming here I searched 'what is in Ballarat?' and when I came her it is regional but also has city life.

"It's got restaurants, I've been to some tourist spots like Sovereign Hill, and I like how friendly the neighbourhood is. Here every time I walk across the street people greet me and I love how the environment is a bit calmer and not too fast-paced ... compared to going back home."

They are among almost 700 overseas healthcare workers to have arrived in Victoria in the past year from Ireland, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, New Zealand, the Philippines and the United States, of which one in five are working in regional areas.

Grampians Health chief people officer Claire Woods said the 25 new international recruits now working in Ballarat had come from India, Singapore, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Ireland and England.

"We are hoping to have about another 40 who ... have either accepted an offer or are close to it," Ms Woods said.

With the need to arrange visas, registration of qualifications and other approvals she hoped most would be here by the end of the year.

"For two and a half years we have not had that pipeline of people we would normally have from overseas ... but the great thing about this program is it really incentivises overseas people to come here because of the recruitment blitz and the offer of incentives to offset relocation costs for people coming out here."

While international recruitment pre-COVID focused more on attracting medical staff, nurses are now very much needed as well.

Ms Woods said Grampians Health was leveraging off the Victorian Government recruitment blitz to identify people who specifically want to come to Ballarat, and to promote the benefits of living and working in Ballarat and the other communities Grampians Health serves.

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"The government blitz is about encouraging volumes of people to consider working in the Victorian health system, then it's up to individual health services to create an attractive proposition for those people who are brought in by the initial campaign."

"It's a great opportunity to work in a large regional health service but live in a community where it's easy to live, where there are great facilities, great schools and a fantastic community.

"In Ballarat there is a really strong connection between life inside work and life outside work and there's a really welcoming sense within community whether it's sport or the arts or other areas of interest or community groups.

"As a community Ballarat is really open to welcoming new people; we want new people to come and live and work here and increase it's vibrancy as a city."

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