Ms Maria Bridgeman:

I thank the Senator for her question. This type of situation really depends on the resources. It would not be the norm to have to wait that long. I can talk to the Senator separately and look up the specific data for that client, if this would be helpful.

Turning to the question on agency nurses, the Senator is correct. It would be far better if we could get enough nurses to work in our services. We are highly dependent now on international recruitment, as Professor Cowan said. This is especially the case in our older persons units. We have similar problems across our mental health services to our colleagues in the acute hospitals, with people retiring or resigning, or, in the case of younger staff, leaving to travel. We are certainly being challenged. Equally, it is somewhat of a lifestyle choice for some people to work with the agencies. This is why we are dependent in this regard. We do, however, have ongoing recruitment all the time.

To give an example, we received significant funding across the community healthcare area in the last year and a half for development posts. Approval was given for approximately 980 whole-time equivalents of which we have 645 people recruited. Additionally, however, we have approximately 1,200 replacement posts to fill, of which we have 738 completed. Therefore, there is this constant ebb and flow of staff and it is challenging. At a local level, we are all looking at the same pool of staff. As was mentioned earlier as well, people are getting promotions now too because of the funding given to community services and special services in that context. We are recruiting very expert staff.